In His time

There's still some of us around that milked the cows by hand. My first encounter with this age-old routine came when I was 11. I'd been hired out to Uncle Lesile for the summers' hay'n. A bad storm left us without power and so there we were at 5 a.m. milk'n 24 cows by hand. Uncle, wife and me. Their children were grown and gone.

Uncle milked seven, Marie 16 and me one. Otherwise, Marie never went to the barn. And she was ex-city gal from California. The Golden State was a different place back in the 1920's when they married, so they say.

We remember the metal "kickers" hang'n on the wall cuz some of them old girls could kick...sideways. Then some was experts at nail'n ya in the face with their tail.

So the story is told about the Quaker who had one of those ol' bovines who never missed with the tail. Mr. Quaker would pull the tail up between the bag and leg to stop this attack. But Bossie would bide her time, pull the tail and swat!

One morning, as she connected with her weapon, the ol' Puritan leaped-off the mik'n stool and point'n a bony finder at the ol'd girl and sez, "Thou knowest I cannot strike thee but does thou knowest I can sell thee to a Presbyterian?"

Apparently the ol' boy thought Presbyterians were a mean bunch of folks.

Whether we admit it or not this is how one denomination sometimes looks at another. They seem to see faults in the other groups but overlook their own.

Most Christians do not know of a terrible time in Church history called the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648 fighting between Protestants and Catholics. It left terrible suffering for millions of innocent people throughout Europe. In Germany, due to the war and repeated plagues and disasters, the population of 16 million dwindled to only six million in 30 years.

Have denominations and church groups ever come together to repent of this terrible time in our history? John 13:35.

Was it that revival in NYC where doors of churches were left open 24-7 for anyone to come and pray? Sept. 23, 1857 was deemed the second great awakening. A widespread religious revival in America began around the turn of the 19th century and continued in different areas of the United States until the Civil War.

Those who were humble came to pray. God loves humility!

I appreciated Pastor Jim Johnson's column in May 27, 2021 issue, "Praying for Revival." My own thoughts were Psalm 85:4-7, Joel 1-14 and the book of Nehemiah.

The spirit of God is needed for a great revival – an end time Pentecost comes through much prayer. How bad do we want revival and when it comes? Will the churches be able to disciple the masses and reform denominational doctrines? But we never sacrifice Biblical trust for unity.

Revival, when it does come, we can say, "He has made everything beautiful in its time!"