WesleyGospel Ministries

¹ Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
–Isaiah 53:1-6 (NIV)–

How awful are those words, which are the words of the great God. “I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment” (Isaiah 63:3). It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favor, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

“Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites” (Isaiah 33:14). Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh” (Isaiah 66:23-24).

Do not be drunk.
–Ephesians 5:18 (NKJV)–

When they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
–Isaiah 8:19 (NKJV)–

Now you yourselves are to put off all these:
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy language out of your mouth.
–Colossians 3:8 (NKJV)–

A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man,
nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment,
for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.
–Deuteronomy 22:5 (NKJV)–

GREAT PREACHING ON THE CROSS.
–J.B.–

THIS IS REALLY GREAT.
–J.B.–

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
–1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NIV)–

Better a little with the fear of the Lord
    than great wealth with turmoil.
–Proverbs 15:16 (NIV)–

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In this podcast I have a tendency to idealize farm life, but the reality is, having a farming business is not the best idea for everybody. It is a very, very dangerous line of business to be involved in. The following hazards present themselves not just for dad, but for every single family member: tractor and machinery injuries and deaths; falling into a grain bin like quicksand and suffocating to death; getting trampled or gored to death by livestock; cancer, nerve damage, and birth defects from exposure to industrial strength pesticides; heat stroke from long hours out in the sun; fatigue from working your body too much; lightning strikes and tornadoes out in the wide open fields; and falling off of roofs, silos, and lofts.

I think the safest and most ideal scenario should be to aim for something akin to farm property–without running an actual farming business–and which lacks all the dangerous farm equipment and buildings. Lots of property, acres, and a farm house like setup, but the husband and the wife each have their own remote work-from-home businesses online (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). But the property should not be too off the grid, not too far out in the rural–perhaps around 5-10 minutes away from a hospital, police department, and fire department. This seems to offer the family maximum independence and privacy combined with maximum safety and emergency response. Both Little House on the Prairie and Field of Dreams tap into this vision of what has been called the “old American dream,” where the family’s connection to the natural creation is both a livelihood and a spiritual grounding; success and ambition are tied not just to effort or financial achievement, but to a moral or spiritual commitment that reflects the “Protestant work ethic,” or the economic virtues of diligence, thrift, and the Golden Rule; strong family and community ties as the framework for personal and social fulfillment; life’s meaning is clearer and moral effort is rewarded; self-reliance, faith, family, and the land are the central themes. –J.B.

Richard Weiss, The American Myth of Success (The University of Illinois Press, 1988).

Irvin Wyllie, The Self-Made Man in America (The Free Press, 1954), pp. 151-174.

Richard Steele, The Religious Tradesman (Sprinkle Publications, 1989).