Ruminant Covenant -
Adaptability
For life, natural disasters,
Y2K and beyond
3 November 1999
Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
On the front cover of my still to be published book, "The Garden of
God," is a picture of Mt. Rainier taken from Spray Park looking at the
summit from the north west . It is a beautiful photograph, even if I have to
say so my self. The lighting is perfect, bringing out the rich tones of this
pastoral setting. It is just as we always envision what the "Garden of
God" (and our lives) should look like.
On the back cover, there is a picture taken a couple of days later and
twenty miles or so down the trail in an even more natural garden setting known
as Berkeley Park, near the Sunrise Visitors Center. In the center of this
picture is a marmot, gathering his summer harvest. If I didn't mention it, most
people would not be able to find him, because the whole picture is grainy and foggy,
just as the weather was that day. The picture doesn't show how hard the wind
was blowing however. But there is that marmot, going about his business,
oblivious to the incredible beauty just above the cloud layer. What a better
picture that is, of most of the times of our lives, than the calendar photo
used on the front of the book.
As Christians, God gives us those calendar visions in conjunction with a
whole lot of foggy days. It is our obedience to that heavenly summit view, that
is to keep us proceeding through days, weeks and even years of the monotonous
haze, in which our vision ahead is only a few feet. I am struck however, at
just how much of this fog or cloudy weather, is a creation of our own flesh and
insecurity. In many cases the slightest tiny stone disturbs our forward faith
march, and as we stumble, we immediately look at our feet. When we look up
again, the whole trek ahead is nothing but a white out. "Oh, God how can I
go on?" is our cry. At those times, faith is still the substance of things
hoped for, and is still the evidence of things not seen. That is a promise of
God, who created us and planted us in His garden upon this earth, and revealed
it to his people through his Holy word. Our emotions say, "No! No!"
But that is not reality.
The neat thing about fog, is that it is white, it is the fullness of light,
diffuse light true, but not darkness at all. If you have ever been in a
situation with the brilliant sun shining brightly only a few feet above a
cloudy fog, you will understand how blinding the white light reflected off of
millions of water particles can be. Many times it could very well be that it is
the fog of His sufficient grace, that shields us from the true personalty of
Christ, for he is that near to our suffering. When the light is overwhelming
and we cannot see, we take it as the curse when in truth it is a blessing. We
must continue to step forward, looking for a more "natural"
manifestation of our God given view. That requires us only to take our eyes off
our feet and look to Jesus the author and the perfecter of that faith, which we
seem to lack. When we take our eyes off ourselves, the clouds clear a little
and we can again begin to take a few childlike steps forward.
Kay, the friend I told you about some weeks ago, always used to tell me.
"Jerry, when you point your finger at someone else, just remember that
there are three fingers pointing back at you. " Someone else said
something like, "The preacher must preach to himself most of all, since
the foolishness of the gospel demands a foolish man to present it in ways that
brings Glory to God."
Much of the last trying hours have been in trying not to look at the storm,
that I myself created, but by faith look to the promises of God's Word. This
Hebrew's verse means look for substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen through the fog, and carry on. Doing these difficult things in
faith, allows us to look at the circumstances in a different and more
transitory light. Still very real and natural and not a gnostic or eastern
spiritual journey. In that vision we can now look at continuing through our ten
rules of ruminant adaptation.
Rule 7. Travel light. Boats and canoes; Goat walking and packing.
If God should give you the opportunity to go through a flooding situation
such as happened to the residents of eastern North Carolina these last few
months, you would know that your neighbors big cruiser that he had parked on
the trailer across the street, would have done him little good. The little
aluminum fishing boat or canoe with that kicker motor you had in your garage
and very seldom used, however not only rescued you and your family, but also
the neighbor and much of the rest of the neighborhood. After that task was done
you went back for Spot and Rover, Tabby and Angel and the rest of the pets.
Then finally you were able to save the Smith's old goat. For some reason they
called him Jerry, for the life of me I don't know why they did that, I always
thought that Billy was a better name for an old goat. Slick Willie wouldn't be
a bad name for a goat either, since they both have white hair, but that is
another story for another time.
Whether a practical water craft should be something you should consider for
your adaptability scheme depends highly upon where you live. Not only from the
ability of the land to flood, but also what kind of weather event it would take
to flood. If you live in relatively low lying flat lands, even if they have
never flooded in recent history, doesn't mean that opportunity will not present
itself in your future, and then the investment of less than $1000 for a small
used boat or canoe and motor will seem, money well spent. Take a peak through
your own vision of "that could never happen to me," that Mt. Rainier
calendar photo, to see what might happen if the clouds rolled in and it rained
and rained.
Now many of you have been dying to ask, "Where in the world did, he
come up with this ruminant covenant stuff, or did he just invent it from his
devious little mind?" Well the answer is that I sort of appropriated the
principle from a book called Goatwalking
by a man named Jim Corbet. The inside flap of the dust jacket says, "Jim
Corbet has spent much of his life as a cowboy, sheep and goat herder, range
analyst, and teacher of wildland symbiotics."
"Well get out the Garth Brooks CD's honey, and let us listen to a bit
of country soul!" Well this book is about as far as modern goat ropin'
country, as salsa made in New York City. Seems that Jim Corbet was one of the
founders of the Sanctuary movement that led many of the refugees from Central
America into this country during the 1980's, he also has, I as I remember, a
masters degree in philosophy and is a confessing Quaker. The book does two
things, it gives an overly long outline of the development of the Sanctuary
movement's underground railroad, leading guiding and refugees from El Salvador
and Guatemala to political asylum in this country. In that aspect it is
simplistic and highly biased. The other portion is about the pastoral, nomadic
roots of the Judeo-Christian religion and its covenants, in comparison to other
world religions. This is written from an actual understanding of the sheep and
goat herders mentality, and how that needs to be a foundational premise of
complete understanding of our spiritual and religious roots. It also points to
the strength or faith of allowing of God's providence, to lead one on a daily
basis, in all the requirements of life, not needing, or having anything else
and also pointing out the freedom from the cares of the world that this nomadic
life-style brings. Contrary to most similar authors however, he quickly points
out the weakness of eastern thought and native cultural religions.
Intrigued by traveling through the desert with just a couple of goats and
nothing else, I obtained a copy of The Pack Goat
by John Mionczski, which is still in print. While these books are really about
the same thing, they come at it from really different religious presuppositions
or hermeneutics. The pack goat basically utilizes a western mind set of going
from here to there on the path we determine. Goatwalking is basically wandering
toward the destination moving at a pace determined by faith in the divine.
Contrasted in this context, our very life at stake, with no luxury of
artificial cultural props, goatwalking is for a Christian an extremely sobering
look at faith in the context of common grace (used here in a solely creation
aspect). What frightening insights it can bring into the specific aspects of
grace applied to propitiation, justification, salvation and sanctification. I'm
not too sure Mr. Corbet understood these aspects from his Quaker religion, but
he did such a good job in the understanding of "natural symbiotics"
to use his term, to make me question, am I truly walking in the faith I
profess, or am I a fraud and just another religious charlatan in a world full
of them.
Rule 8. Hunting and gathering for fun and
profit. Rifles and other means of mass
destruction. Natural foods.
Goats don't graze they browse. Consequently, if you don't push them too
hard, you can go merrily on your way receiving most of your subsidence from
goat's milk and what little you can or wish to gather. In a sense that is real
freedom of the hills, or anywhere else for that matter. You don't need manna
from heaven, you need milk from the goat. If you keep it in the context that
the goat too, is a gift from God, God does not need to support you through the
apparent miraculous.
Our idea of survival, is to get us a gun and head for the hills and kill
something, just like the pioneers, or the Indians. Those days are gone, and
perhaps they never did exist, except for a few more eccentric old goats. Don't
count me as among them however. Firearms coupled with the ability to shoot
accurately is a means, one may be able to supplement the Bill of Faire in the
right but limited circumstance.
Since we have been mentioning books let me now mention books by Bradford
Angier, a Bostonian writer who with his wife transported themselves to a place
called Hudson's Hope on the Peace River in Northern British Columbia. There
they supported themselves off the land and writing of books, mostly from the
50' through the '70s. Much of this ruminant adaptability segment has come from
a number of his books. Not only are they packed with good information, they are
interesting to read. Most are now out of print but you may find one in a used
bookstore, there are probably 20 titles or more, with a lot of redundant
information, but they are also among the best concerning adapting, wilderness living
and self sufficiency.
That paragraph was a way to introduce his thoughts along with his friend
Colonel Townsend Whelen concerning firearms. They did not believe in pistols or
shotguns for food gathering. They would reload shells for their 30-06 or .270
with greatly reduced loads and lightweight bullets, for use on small game.
Factory loads being reserved for bigger quarry. Arguments about the superior
aspects of either caliber, usually started by the .270 owner are prevalent in
hunting circles. The fact is that either caliber equipped with the right bullet
and fired by someone who knows how to shoot will successfully handle all North
American game that a normal hunter would come in contact with. By the way, .30
caliber converts to 7.62 mm so you might keep that in mind for hunting aspects
in metric countries.
The natives of Canada most of the year carried a .22 rifle with which to
collect meat for the pot. A cheap shell for a meal, I have even read stories
about them successfully bagging a moose with a .22. When fall was near they
would get out the bigger rifle to bag bigger meat for winter. My grandfather
used to go hunting in Canada. After he returned from one trip, he went out and
bought a .303 British rifle to carry when he was driving on his mail route, he
said his guide had one. I was always curious about that purchase, since he had
an extremely nice 30-06. Recently I learned that after WW II the Canadian
government had given these rifles to the natives for hunting, it wasn't that
the .303 was a better gun, it was just the one my grandfather's guide had and
he was very good at using it.
John Wayne won the west with a lever action Model 1894 .30-30 rifle.
Actually, the west was won mostly before 1894 but such are the details of life.
No other rifle has more nostalgia associated with it either. As a saddle gun,
for deer, antelope, black bear and the like it will get the job done. The
.30-30 was my first rifle also. It was my grandfathers, on the Bannon side of
the family. I had it until it misfired when hunting with my dad and uncle when
I was in high school. The bullet went down through my overshoe, my shoe and
took the meat off the side of my little toe. That probably was the first
apparent miracle in my life. If you don't believe me just take off your shoe
and see how much meat you have on the outside of your little toe. The Doctor in
the emergency room said if the bullet had hit the bone of my toe it would have
probably taken off a goodly portion of the side of my foot. We sold it shortly
after that and I bought a .30-06.
The only gun I have purchased since those high school days is a Model 94
last year. The eighteen is gone, and actually this is the gun that won the west
in the movies. This is a beautiful little saddle carbine that measures only 34
inches long. Really I guess I regretted selling that original piece of my
grandfathers. With some light weight reduced load bullets and some factory
loads, if one was a good shot, an old goat could probably wander pretty much
anywhere in the wilderness of the world with a few goats and be safe from
natural predators and well fed.
As far as firearms for protection in the urban setting a saying from my
military days should provide instruction, "What do you call an officer
armed with a sidearm (pistol)? Provided you can out run him, any thing you
want. What do you call an officer armed with a rifle? Sir!" Probably the
only people who can truly in the time of crisis shoot a pistol accurately are
boys who play video games. The police overcome their lack of superior marksmanship
with a shear volume of bullets. The news bears witness to these facts. We by
definition are to be on the side of the police. If you do not know that you
will use a firearm to protect yourself and your family don't. (That is not
"I think I can", or "I hope I can", it is "I know I
can", for if you can't say that, your hesitation may mean you will never
say, "I thought, I could.") The best urban policy therefore is to
leave the guns in gun shops or have them securely locked away where they cannot
be used in any time of developing crisis. If you want to watch gun violence,
just turn on the TV. Want to be involved in gun violence, buy a video game and
watch it become home, just like pornography and a whole host of other American
First Amendment protected freedoms.
Rule 9. Sticking it out. Cabins and more permanent structures, your place in the
woods.
If by chance you will need to develop a more permanent structure to live in
the woods or wilderness, it is wise to remember, that you lose a lot of freedom
by being tied to a location. That being said, if safety from mankind is not a
threat, a cabin or other structure might be worthwhile. Depending of course on
the location and economic circumstances. That chain saw might be of value. A
few books I would recommend if you can find them are Bradford Angier's
"How to build your home in the woods," Calvin Ruston's "The
wilderness cabin," or "The Indian tipi" by Reginald and Gladys
Laubin, which is still in print.
Because of the difficulties of communism or perhaps just part of their
culture, the Russian people have small plots of land with what we would call a
small cabin, away from the city. There they retreat and grow a lot of their
produce for winter usage. It seems like a prudent thing for Americans to do also.
Maybe some of our brothers and sisters in Russia, could help us to more fully
understand this aspect of their country and their culture.
Next week we will end this adaptability series with Rule
10. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Following that, in future weeks we will look at :
Earth's chromosomes tell me that my Dad is
not an evolutionist. Theistic
evolutionary dogma, gap theory nonsense and Bishop Usher's chronology are
presented in the light of scientific dating methods (chromosomes) for the age
of the earth.
Ruminant Covenant: The Spirit of Ichabod or,
slouching toward sheephood. If we really
are so smart, why do we act so stupid.
PRAYER PLANTS
Optimism, to fear, to panic. Oh, God are we at times a sorry lot. Just when
I think I have it all under control, I act just like you. Or is it that you
react just like me. I guess it is just the state of fallen, but redeemed
mankind. Thank God, I can trust in a perfect Savior. What a blessing that truly
is.
This month, which may in part be contributing to the faith section at the
beginning, is shaping up to be a month more faith will be required. This week I
am called to jury duty, which pays $10 per day. I got a call from my
"stepfather" who said that my mother, who is in a nursing home in
Spokane, suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, is deteriorating physically quite
rapidly and to be aware. So if not before, after finishing my civic duty, I will
head to Spokane to begin to see what that may hold. The week of Thanksgiving is
the pending court case. So the month of November is going to be a month, when I
will not be able to work enough to earn my support . This is a new level of
trust in the Lord to provide my needs. All this, except for the jury duty, are
things that need to be taken care of as the Lord leads. Two and a half years
ago, my mother had a pacemaker installed after a slight stroke, if we would
have realized how quickly she would deteriorate mentally after that, we
probably would not have had the pacemaker installed. Now, I would be relieved
if she could go home to be with the Lord and see this time of suffering cease.
(Actually some of this has already been answered, my jury duty is postponed until
December so I will be available except for the court case to go to be with my
mother, earn money or whatever other circumstances the Lord leads.)
Last week, before I was crushed with doubt, I ran across a ship that I think
would meet the needs of the Diversity Cruise. In the light of listening to my
own preaching on this ruminant adaptability, it is a 144 ft., three mast
schooner with a sail area of 6900 square feet and accommodations for twenty
some. Therefore we could have the ability to sail or move under diesel power as
the situation dictates. I have emailed for more information. Please pray for
the Lord's will, in these and related matters as well as related provision.
One of the things I have found amazing over this year as how the Lord has
provided for me to do these emailings. The first file for a monthly mailing of
"eoikos" is dated 4 November 1998. Those of you who received that
first mailing and are still willing to open your email folder and see another
message from me, I would like to sincerely thank you. Since I started the
weekly messages in May, time has just sort of appeared on my calendar to put
these together. (This includes the rescheduling of jury duty, this very
morning.) I have had enough feedback from, especially those of you in foreign
lands, to feel that this is a God given gift to let you know that God
appreciates the sacrifices you are making for His gospel. I do not have the
financial ability to support your work, but I do care that you reach all the
potential that God has for you personally, in your family and in your ministry,
so each week God willing, this will continue. My background is not in
preaching, but teaching and management. I would like to see you benefit in some
aspects of these applied areas in which you work. The greatest works God has
ever created for his people on this earth however, is the opportunity to bring
the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying word in whatever fashion he
enables us.
Therefore in the words of that most famous of all old shepherds, the words
that have become a part of this rumination series, and the benediction that
also closes so many church and congregational meetings.
"May the LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you shalom."
Amen.