"Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful..."

BCS  CHAMPIONSHIP!!

Today is the big day:  The BCS National Championship between Auburn and Oregon, and I hear that the dinner menu is candied Duck.  We haven't actually won a national championship since 1957, although we could have in 1993 and 2004 because we went undefeated in both seasons.  I only wish I could be in Alabama watching the game with all my Auburn buddies.  Maybe next year.   I've already bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate the Tigers victory tonight - should be fun!

It's been snowing non-stop since yesterday morning, and it should begin to taper off in a few hours.  I'd say we've gotten maybe 12 inches in the last 24 hours.  I plowed the driveway twice yesterday to stay ahead of the curve, and I learned a new trick by watching the big dump-trucks as they plow the roads around here:  the faster you go when you're plowing the better.  The last time I plowed (a week ago) it probably took me 45 minutes to clear the driveway.  Yesterday I could finish the job in 15 by driving the ATV faster because the snow just tends to blow away in front of you rather than heaping up into piles.  I don't know if this idea will work later in the Spring when the snow becomes wetter and heavier - but the snow we've gotten so far is like powdered sugar (must be awesome up on the ski slopes!).

Spiritual Warfare

The video link below is the introduction to my message this coming Wednesday on Spiritual Warfare - the first in the series called, "Jim's Believe It Or Not; Amazing But True Tales From The Mission Field."  In preparing for this particular message, I was reminded of the strange but true story of "The Man Eaters of Tsavo" - a tale that took place in what is now the Tsavo East National Park in Southern Kenya.  I've been to Tsavo many times in my younger days, but was never able to spot any of the now infamous "mane-less" male lions that still roam this arid,  unforgiving land.  In the late 1800's two such unusual male lions lacking the typical magnificent golden mane of the species brought the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo river to a complete halt.  These two lions snacked on some 135 Indian and African workers over a period of nine months, and halted the construction of the railway and frustrated the power of the British Kingdom until Colonel Patterson was able to kill both of them.  These lions had an uncanny ability to evade being killed, so much so that the locals believed they were not lions at all but demons in lion form.  Patterson described how he would set a trap at one end of the camp, only to hear the screams coming from the opposite end sometime during the night - again, and again, and again.  It was like they could read his mind and knew where he was going to be.


It's no wonder why the Lord compares Satan to a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.  Interesting thing about lions: they roar to declare their territory or to frighten away other animals; but when they hunt, they go silent because they're ambush killers.  So is our enemy - he would rather convince us that he's not a threat at all, or keep us looking in the wrong direction while he tries to trip us up at our weakest point.  We have to put on the armor we've been given, and resist the enemy at every point along the way.