Chicken House Fire

Today I'm happy to host Jennifer Hallmark, one of my fellow writers of the book A Dozen Apologies.

“You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah” Psalm 32:7 NKJV

The year was 2009. The week had been busy and I was amazed by how much plain hard work was involved in a writing career. Websites, blogs, articles, and research vied for my time, not to mention my regular life. Add in the fact that I had begun to search for a literary agent to promote my novel, Journey of Grace and had been asked to become a contributing writer for brandlady.com women’s magazine. Can you imagine the week of work, decisions mingled with a bit of fear and exhilaration?

Has anyone out there noticed that in the life of a Christian if good things are happening, our adversary, the devil, isn’t happy about it? On Thursday, problems surfaced, beginning with my son’s car not running right. Now it was under warranty so we made plans to take it to the shop on Friday morning to drop it off and get a free rental for our trouble.

I decided my son and I could do our work in the chicken houses when we returned from the Ford place. At that time, we owned a farm with two 500-foot broiler chicken houses which hold 30,000 chickens apiece. The chickens were brought to us at one day old and we sold them to a processing plant when they reached six weeks of age, each chicken weighing a little more than four pounds. The work could wait until we returned so I stopped by to adjust the fans and check things over.

I adjusted the fan time in the second house control room, noticing an odd reading on the computer board. Upon walking in the door at the middle of the chicken house, I could see something orange near the back wall where the fans are placed. It looked like a small patch of flames surrounding the fans.

“Jonathan!” I hollered at my son who was waiting outside in his car. “Come quick!”

He entered the chicken house and ran toward the back to see how bad it was while I went back to check the computer panel again. In a moment, he returned.

“It’s a fire on the back wall!”

He called 911 while I drove back to our home to wake my husband who had worked off night shift.

I shook him. “Danny, get up. The chicken house is on fire!” He jumped up and dressed and we took off to help Jonathan.

Meanwhile my son had grabbed the small fire extinguisher and had exhausted it on the flames but it wasn’t enough. Danny grabbed a garden hose near the computer control room and while I waited for the fire truck, they were able to put out the fire.

Soon our farm was crawling with the local volunteer fire department, curious neighbors, family and folks in the area that heard the news on their scanners. The fire fighters checked the ceiling and walls in the surrounding area making sure there were no hidden hot spots.

In the end, the fire burned a twenty-five foot section of wall and ceiling and 20 chickens died, not from fire or smoke but probably shock. Some neighbors and a carpenter came and walled in the area so it would be weather tight. We would rewire and replace the burnt area after we sold the chickens in a few days. A faulty plug had shorted out, sending sparks that caught the chipboard wall on fire.

The natural gas workers, and people with Pilgrim’s Pride agreed it was a miracle the house had not burned to the ground. Most chicken houses are made of wood, heated with natural gas, with pine shavings on the floor and plenty of fans to drive a flame. Most houses that catch on fire burn down in less than twenty minutes. This fire only smoldered and though it had been burning for a while when we found it, the fans had no effect on the intensity of the fire.

As things were winding down that day, I continually thanked God for his protective hand over our farm. One look at the pictures our daughter snapped that day of the damage is enough to remind me of how blessed we’d been and how God truly watches over us.

 God is a proven rear guard and I’m forever thankful.

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Jennifer Hallmark: writer by nature, artist at heart, and daughter of God by His grace. She loves to read detective fiction from the Golden Age, watch movies like LOTR, and play with her two precious granddaughters. At times, she writes.

Her website is Alabama-Inspired Fiction and she shares a writer’s reference blog, Writing Prompts & Thoughts & Ideas…Oh My! with friends, Christina, John, Ginger, Dicky, and Betty. She and Christina Rich share an encouraging blog for readers called The Most Important Thing.

Jennifer and her husband, Danny, have spent their married life in Alabama and have a basset hound, Max.

Links to Jennifer:

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Join Jennifer and me in the adventures of Mara Adkins in A Dozen Apologies.

A Matter of Respect

1 Peter 2:17

I’ve heard people say, “If you want my respect, you must treat me with respect.” It seems to be a popular philosophy for making sense of relationships. I’ve even heard one person say that this is the Golden Rule. Actually, it’s the opposite. If the Golden Rule were put in terms of respect it would be, “I will respect you because I want you to respect me.”

But this verse goes further. It requires me to respect everyone, regardless of how they treat me or how I want to be treated. 

Respect everyone I encounter:

NO MATTER how they treat me

NO MATTER whether I know them

NO MATTER whether they are Christians

NO MATTER what kind of lifestyle they’re leading

To respect, according to Merriam Webster, is to give someone high or special regard. That means I should treat everyone as if they were special. I should recognize their worth as creations of God. I should accept them and be courteous toward them.

Respect is the starting point. My attitude should be nothing less than respect for everyone.

But God requires something more toward my Christian family. He wants me love all Christians because they are my brothers and sisters. The family gets respect and love. 

And then there’s my attitude toward God. He wants me to fear Him. If respect is the starting point, and love is the next step, then God gets both of those. But I should also stand before Him in awe at His mighty power. Like Job, I should put my hand over my mouth when He speaks and tremble in His presence like Isaiah did. 

Then the verse circles back to respect. Even though we’ve been told to respect everyone, it specifically tells us to respect the king. The king represents the governmental authorities. Specifically, I should respect the president, congressman and other elected officials. But I think God wants me to respect government in general. I should give authority high regard. God has instituted government for our good and no matter how much I disagree with the decisions of lawmakers, I should speak about them respectfully and recognize God’s sovereignty behind them.

This verse covers all areas of my life: Social, familial, spiritual and political. I should respect everyone I encounter in all these areas.

God simply doesn’t give me any excuse for picking and choosing who I will respect or for waiting for someone to deserve it.

Now That It's Over

1 Peter 2:13-17, Romans 13:1-5 

Being a Christian who lives in a democracy and enjoys politics isn’t easy. I have opinions about the issues that everyone’s talking about and I have the right and responsibility to choose candidates who support my position. I try to take positions that are pleasing to God and supported by scripture. But I have Christian friends who do the same and yet have very different positions. And I have non-Christian friends who think Christians are prejudiced and hateful. 

Now that the election is over, I have little doubt in which direction the country will be going on many of the issues I think are important. My friends and family are still talking and posting about them and I’ve been tempted to respond with my opinion, but it’s clear from scripture that my opinion is not what matters. 

These scriptures show the attitude God wants from His people, no matter what kind of government we have.

FEAR GOD

God is the ultimate authority. He is in control of His entire creation, including the country I live in. Rather than be afraid of my future (or my grandchildren’s future), I should fear God. He’s the One who decides our future. I should trust Him to care for me and those I love because He has promised that He will. Before I think about politics, before I worry about who’s in the Oval Office, before I decide who to vote for, I should bow before the Sovereign God.

RESPECT AUTHORITY

That’s a tough one. I have sometimes yelled at my car radio while listening to the news, and even called politicians names. There are plenty of them who have not only made scary decisions, but have also done despicable things. In my mind, they don’t deserve respect. But whether I like the people in power or whether they are honorable or worthy of respect, God says to respect them.

He has appointed them.

Who am I to question God? 

According to Merriam-Webster, respect is high and special regard. Holding the president in high regard means speaking about him positively. It means giving him the special attention I give to those I love most. It means praying for him.

LOVE MY FELLOW BELIEVERS

God not only wants me to be respectful of those in authority, He especially wants me to love other Christians. That’s a whole lot more important than who I vote for. In political conversations, especially the distant ones on Facebook, it’s easy to be negative and it’s easy to argue. So when I disagree with my brothers and sisters, I should do it lovingly. When I’m loving, the world will notice.

Government’s job is to make people do right and punish those who do wrong. If I do what is right and obey God, I have nothing to fear from government. 

Wait. When I look at history – or even at recent attacks on our religious rights – I see lots of times when Christians have had good reason to be afraid. But government is God’s servant.  

I may not like what is happening under our current leadership and it may get worse. But God has set our president and congressmen in authority. My response to that authority is to respect and submit to it. And more importantly, I should continue to love other Christians.

Religion vs. Godliness

2 Timothy 3:1-5

I believe we’re living in the last days. At least today is the last day I’ve lived. It might even be the last day. Jesus might come back today. But in the meantime, I can look around and see the signs. One of the signs is that people act religious but aren’t godly. That’s probably been a problem in the church since the beginning, but I know it’s a problem now. There are people who claim to be Christians but don’t “walk the walk.” I really want to be godly, but I wonder how much of my life is just religious.

In this passage, Paul makes it easy for us to tell the difference. He gives Timothy a list of behaviors of faux religious people and a list of godly behaviors. Here’s my summary.

Faux Religious People:

love only themselves and their money

boastful and proud

scoffing at God

disobedient to their parents

ungrateful.

consider nothing sacred

unloving and unforgiving

slander others

have no self-control

cruel

hate what is good

betray their friends

be reckless

be puffed up with pride

love pleasure rather than God

Godly People:

Accept the power that can make them godly

Okay, that was a trick list, but it simplifies the Christian life in a lot of ways. In order to live a godly life, all I have to do is accept the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, let Him do it in me.

The problem is that there are some behaviors in the religious list that sound awfully familiar. I spend a lot of time acting religious instead of godly. Or to be more accurate, I spend a lot of time trying not to be a hypocrite – fighting those behaviors because I know they’re not pleasing to God.

It’s a losing battle.

The only way to win is to accept the power that can make me godly.

The only way to win is to submit to the power of the Holy Spirit.

The difference between acting religious and being godly is God. Duh.