A Short Political Comment.....

As Americans we need to be well-read and well informed in order to intelligently participate in our democratic republic. This applies to Christians as well because our Christianity is not just a "compartment" that is accessed on Sundays; our Christianity should permeate and affect every aspect of our lives-including our citizenship. So, as a Christian who loves God, and an American who loves America, every once in a while, a political post may appear here on this blog, as I observe the current events and news of the day.


Challenge Question: Who wrote or said this quote?

"Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions."



(I apologize if a certain person comes to mind when you read this quote)


No, it is not anyone from Fox News.....






It is a quote from Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

Isn't it interesting how truths from the era of our Founding Fathers still resound with clarity.

Apple Time!

After Apple Picking
by Robert Frost

“My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still.
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now….”

I thought this picture captured the beginning stanza of this poem so well! I had no idea that ladders for apple-picking have only two (3?) legs! yikes! OK, the one is pretty wide... but still, the other one is just a pole!

Natalie and I drove up just north of Placerville to visit Abel’s Apple Acres- the first of the beautiful fruit ranches along “Apple Hill Road.” Unlike the poem, however, we are not done picking our apples---we want to go back! As we toured through the orchards I thought of the scenes in Anne of Green Gables and the bushels of apples delightfully picked in the late afternoon sun. The day we were there still felt like summer, and was quite warm; summer’s last little dalliance with us, I guess. Since then, we have had some cool weather appear to reassure everyone that fall is still on her way. Maybe we can make the trip up to Apple Hill in a couple weeks accompanied by some authentic apple-picking weather!

I’ve been reading the book, Things Unseen by Mark Buchanan and really enjoying it. Again a book that puts life in perspective and lays out what we should have our eyes on as Christians. (hmm, there seems to be a pattern here in my reading …)
Here is an excerpt from the book. The chapter is titled, “Dead Already” based on Col. 3:2-3, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

"Be in the world, just not of it. Make your mindset heaven, but don’t shun earth. Indeed, seek to live abundantly here and now---to savor earth’s good things, it’s sweet fruits and white waters and warm beds,…
Just never reduce your life’s purpose to the here and now. Earthly minded people do that….They never look up.”

Spending the day at Apple Hill was a day well spent in savoring the earth’s good things.