Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

Echoes From the Campfire

“A man can have a little bit and feel rich, or he can have a lot and feel poor.”
--Elmer Kelton (The Time It Never Rained)

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
--Matthew 6:24 (NKJV)
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In my earlier years I spent some time learning how to tie knots. I figured that a person might not know when a certain knot by become useful. Over the years, I've forgotten some of them, but then again, I've have been able to use some of them in my work and journeys. There is the legend of the Gordian Knot. It was said that whoever could untie this particular knot would rule the world. On the scene, Alexander the Great. The crowds grew around him watching if he would be able to untie the knot. He walked up to it, looked it over--then took out his sword and slashed the knot in half. That's one way to untie a knot. Hmmm, perhaps you have gotten frustrated and cut a rope, shoestring, or other item that has been tied and instead of untying it, you simply cut it.
     I came across a story last week, I don't know the author, but there is quite a bit of common sense in it. I know, that is something that is rare today--common sense. Actually it is a prayer:

"Dear God:
Please untie the knots
that are in my mind,
my heart and my life.

Remove the 'have nots,'
the 'can nots' and the 'do nots'
that I have in my mind.

Erase the 'will nots',
'may nots', 'might nots'
that may find a home in my heart.

Release me from the 'could nots,'
'would nots' and 'should nots'
that obstruct my life.

And most of all,
I ask that You remove from my mind,
my heart and my life all of the 'am nots'
that I have allowed to hold me back,
especially the thought that I am not
good enough.
I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen."
--unknown

     Hmmm, do you have a naughty mind; I mean to say a knotty mind. A mind that looks like the backlash of a fishing reel. The mind is a tangled mess because of who you are, what you've read, what you've done, where you've been. Let the Holy Spirit take the sword of God's Word and slash through it, removing the "knots" and straightening your mind, focusing it on Him.

D.C. Adkisson