Great post Phil,
I always enjoy hearing your stories about your uncle Fred.
Virgie and lady Hoshi
doing business at
www.vunderwood.ktostemtech.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 12:14 PM
Subject: Relationship Building
> From Post To Post
>
> Building A Fence And Getting Well Through Prayer
>
>
> By Phil Scovell
>
>
>
> Uncle Fred was my father's oldest brother. He out lived all of
> his other brothers and sisters and died just before turning 92
> years of age. He quit school in his teens because his father
> died so someone was needed to run their Kansas farm. Uncle Fred
> was the oldest so it fell to him.
>
> Uncle Fred was a Jack of all trades, meaning, he could build
> or repair, just about anything. He rode a horse to school and
> also ran a seven mile trap line every morning and every night, by
> riding his horse, checking to see if his traps had caught
> anything. He sold animal pelts in town for extra family money.
>
> When he retired, he moved from Iowa back to Kansas. He
> bought some land just outside of Wichita and built a small house
> and garage. He went fishing, maintained his house, planet a grove
> of trees on his property, planet grass in his huge yard, and
> eventually, ran out of things to do. He got tired of sitting
> around and watching the trees grow, they were now 30 feet high,
> and watching his grass grow, so he called and asked if my offer
> was still open about him moving to Denver to live with us. I said
> yes, he sold his house, moved to Denver, and we bought a house
> together. That was 25 years ago. The house was on the same size
> of lot he had owned in Kansas, we had several trees, a double car
> garage which he converted into his workshop, and for nine years,
> he was the happiest man on earth.
>
> Although Uncle Fred had never married, my children were like
> grandchildren to him. We shared meals and I got to know my uncle
> even better as we spent many hours together working on projects,
> putting up fences, planting, tree trimming, and yard tending.
>
> Uncle Fred told me one day that he had decided he would put
> up a fence around his property in Wichita. It took several
> hundred feet of fencing but putting up fence was nothing knew to
> this old farmer. When it was finished, his property was protected
> with a perfectly straight and squared and fine looking fence.
>
> One day, Uncle Fred was sitting out on his front porch. A
> young man had built a house across the road from him and he, too,
> had decided that he needed a fence. Uncle Fred watched each
> night, after the young neighbor came home from work, as the young
> man worked on his fence. After several evenings, he saw the young
> man strolling across the street. Uncle Fred said he knew the
> young man would be coming to see him eventually because the fence
> he was putting up was so unaligned, and off centered and
> corkscrewed, it looked as if a snake had installed it. The young
> man asked Uncle Fred if he could tell him how to make his fence
> posts as straight and as lined up as my Uncle's. My Uncle laughed
> and offered to come over and help him.
>
> When Uncle Fred finished telling me this story, I asked him
> just how did he keep the fence posts in a straight line. I
> assumed, of course, he followed his property line, which is, by
> the way, an invisible line but that's beside the point. He said,
> "Why the same way we used to plow a field. You find something in
> the distance to sight on. then you keep your eye on that tree,
> or whatever it might be, and keep planting your fence posts lined
> up with what you are fixed on in the distance. Then, when you are
> done, you can turn around and look at the straight line you have
> followed and see that all your fence posts are in line."
>
> Now, you don't have to be a preacher to immediately recognize
> the spiritual application and theological comparisons of this
> story. Sighting on something in the distance? That sounds a lot
> like prayer to me. Keeping your eye focused on what you see in
> this distance and each of your fence posts will be straight?
> Sounds like building upon what you learn through prayer to me.
>
> Often, when praying with people as an intercessor, I explain
> that this particular type of prayer we are doing is, first and
> foremost, praying in agreement according to Matthew 18:19 which
> says, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on
> earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done
> for them of my Father which is in heaven."
>
> secondly, it is accountability, according to Ephesians 5:21
> which says, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of
> God."
>
> thirdly, each place of won victory, or place of permanent
> healing, is like putting down one fence post after another as in
> building a fence of protection as it indicates in John 1:16 where
> it says, "And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for
> grace."
>
> There is only one form of communications afford us as Born
> Again Believers and that is prayer. Someone may emphatically
> theologically disagree by insisting the Bible, God's Holy Word, is
> another form of communications. I agree with that statement,
> however, in my opinion, just the simple reading of God's Word is a
> passive form of communing with our Lord. So is worship and praise
> and giving of thanks, for that matter, but no matter how we view
> these forms of identity, they are all, in one way or another,
> forms of prayer. They may be active or they may be passive but
> they are all prayers to God or ways of communicating with Him.
>
> Where does one begin with this form of Christian life? "Set
> your affections on things above, not on things on the earth,"
> Colossians 3:2). This phrase actually means that you, and your
> thoughts, should be Heavenly in nature. Why? Because, that's
> where things come from that we intend to receive. This is why I
> often suggest that prayer is exchanging our thoughts for God's.
> The problem so often is, on the other hand, that the moment we
> begin to allow our thoughts to focus on spiritual, or Heavenly
> things as we commune with God, we immediately come face to face
> with blockages. These can take the form of doubts that we aren't
> good enough, worries we aren't going to make it, the fear that God
> isn't hearing us or is too busy to take time for our problems,
> guilt that we have some sin we cannot control or get rid of, or
> keeps returning, and that, we think, will keep God from wanting to
> commune with us, and sometimes the blockages take on the form of
> blank walls we just can't get around. This is often the time that
> agreement in prayer, or accountability with another brother or
> sister in the Lord, can help. Frankly, this is all I do when I
> pray with others. I am an intercessor. No, not an intercessor
> that functions as Jesus does but an intercessor who stands with a
> person who simply prays with them in agreement so we can find the
> blockages which keep us from having a normal and productive and
> enriching relationship with Christ. Believe it or not, this is
> exactly what Jesus wants with us but the Enemy attempts to hinder
> this relationship by destabilization. If you are blocked by
> anything that isn't allowing you freedom in your spiritual and
> emotional relationship with Christ, I'll be glad to help. Just
> call. Let Jesus begin building your fence of relational
> protection by making your paths, fence posts, straight, (Proverbs
> 3:5-6).
>
>
> The Curse That Works Is The One You Believe
> WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.com
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