Grace Is The Currency Of The True Economy
Grace. The concept of unmerited favor. Those who claim to be born-again Christians should understand this definition. But, I wonder if too many of us limit the idea to the work of Christ death, burial, and resurrection. I believe grace abounds beyond the facts of...
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The Consumer: Time To Wake The Sleeping Giant
I’ve done my fair share of industrial farmer bashing. But, I have come to believe that the planetary damage caused by agriculture is as much a product of consumerism as it is the evils of large farm operations. If that’s the case, should more of our energy be directed...
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Agriculture Practiced In Sin
“Cain got it wrong just like us moderns.” A friend of mine sent that message to me recently when I encouraged him to conduct a word study of the English word “till” in the Old Testament. He had read my essays on the topic and knew what I was referring to. Yet, his...
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Stewardship Of The Land
I feel compelled to deal with mandates of the Bible toward man in relation to creation. This is key to our motivation and the decisions we make moment by moment. To deal with this mandate, I will draw attention to a key Hebrew verb in the creation account I feel is...
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Stewardship and the Christian farmer
Humans are living on a planet with ground that is cursed as a result of sin. This planet we call Earth, where the Creator placed us, will one day be consumed by fire and a new Heaven and Earth will be established. Until that time, redeemed Christians, especially...
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Day-Old Chicks: Part Deux
One year ago we welcomed 26 day-old chicks to Hebron Acres (buff Orpingtons and barred Plymouth Rocks). We were excited because they represented the first livestock on our place. That day began with a phone call from the post office informing us that our chicks were...
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Farm Auction Two-Step
You've read the advertisement in the paper. You went through the itemized list of things being sold at a large estate or consignment auction. You're counting down the last few days until the big dance. You even have your alarm set so you can get up early to get a good...
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Three Feet Ahead (poem)
Three Feet Ahead The pace measured in steady footfalls Seems to me the more natural. With limbs that stretch only so far My step followed by step Affords a view of the world unblurred. This pace reveals the Creator’s love; A love expressed in provision of abundance....
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Dabbling In Solar System Pays Dividends
Dabbling is something every homesteader or farmer I know does. Whether it’s blacksmithing or grafting, there’s something we don’t do on a large scale, but we … well … dabble! At Hebron Acres it’s no different. Lately, we’ve taken to dabbling in solar energy generation...
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Evangelize no matter the neighbor
Rod Dreher recently wrote in his blog about the notion of how immigration might actually be a benefit for Christians who are battling in the marketplace of ideas because they would likely find strong allies among immigrants for similar values. It was a really...
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Growth In Mysticism Is A Mars Hill Opportunity
Mysticism is being mainstreamed. I’m not talking the fantasy-world fiction of Narnia or the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m referring to those things that the Bible clearly warns us about that have been flowing anew into mainstream culture with barely a peep from...
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Tips When Considering A Greenhouse For Your Homestead
We’ve been reassembling our hightunnel at Hebron Acres and it dawned on me that there are many homesteaders and farmers who use hoophouses, greenhouses or other forms of structures to extend their growing season. Since these structures are growing in popularity, it’s...
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Was It Really A Kind Of Sophie’s Choice?
An interesting blog post appeared over at Mere Orthodoxy regarding what I am referring to as The Great Evangelical Capitulation during the recent presidential election. It prompted me to respond here via my own blog. Blogger Jake Meador outlined several key points,...
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Could A Trump Administration Inadvertently Grow Eco-Agriculture?
Let me start off with two provisos: 1) I’m not an economist in any way; 2) I did not vote for Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton. With those out of the way I pose a question. If Mr. Trump does follow through with actions against TPP and against NAFTA could it be a good thing...
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A Culture Of Distraction – Revisited
Four years ago, Jason Fowler, our host and editor of Sustainable Traditions, published a blog post he referred to as a lament. In 2012, he expressed some degree of remorse at the cultural changes that had taken place in this country and described some of them. Let’s...
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If ‘Lord Of All’ Then The Gospel For All
Humans are created by God to have an innate response to true injustice. Some people have learned to suppress this reaction, but it’s there no matter how repressed. There’s no need to enumerate injustices that have taken place since the fall of man. We know them when...
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Five Questions When Buying Land – Question Five
I’ve saved the most important question for last. It really is the question you should be asking yourself first as you contemplate buying land. The fifth and biggest question is whether or not buying land is God’s will for you. By way of recap and so you see the...
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Five Questions When Buying Land – Question Four
We’ve covered some really important questions so far. The next question you need to examine is “who will do it?” It’s less obvious than you may think. The risk for making wrong assumptions is very high. What this question really means is who is on board with your...
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Five Questions When Buying Land – Question Three
As our series of five questions continues, we’ll examine the third one which asks how you will go about what you want to achieve. How you will achieve your plan often begins with making an assessment of the kind of resources you have now and the resources you feel...
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God’s Provision In A Chicken
I interrupt the buying land series momentarily to plop in a post about our chickens. My wife and I love our chickens. I’m not sure why. But, they just seem lovable. They are peculiar in their behaviors, which gives us no end of entertainment. We harvest about a dozen...
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Five questions when buying land – Question Two
Our previous installment dealt with ensuring you have a clear understanding of what you want before buying land. Now, we will consider the “where” question. It’s a more complex question than you might imagine. To recap, here are the five questions: What do I want?...
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Five questions when considering buying land
If you’re like me, you might have a tendency to dive into what you want to do and then learn from your mistakes. But, when thinking of land purchases for a homestead or even something bigger, you need to start off carefully and avoid costly mistakes. In this five-part...
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Restless Winter Mind (poem)
Restless Winter Mind My mind is restless most in winter when the cold and sleet sting my skin like nettle. Nostalgia for autumn’s wonder is joined in my mind with spring’s promise of plant and project anxious for beginnings. Warm forced air blankets me as I stare out...
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A Spring Storm (poem)
A Spring Storm The boil of the spring sky, now charcoal grey and laced with flashing threads of electric-blue, fulfills the prophesy of a red-sky morning. Rumbles roll in from the southwest while the leaves on the grandfather Osage orange freeze in terrible...
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Spring Morning After Berry (poem)
Spring Morning After Berry As morning fog billows on the pasture hillside at the intersection of dawn and full light, the great boiling ball creates glistening diamond dew crowning brome, curly dock, red clover, and alfalfa. Accompanying is the caw of red-wing...
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American Roots Of Agrarianism
Agrarianism posits that the practices associated with the agricultural life are particularly — and in some cases uniquely — well suited to yield important personal, social, and political goods. The precise character of these goods — and the respective roles of...
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What Should Christians Tell The World?
I'm not sure why it never occurred to me. As I've been preparing lessons to teach Luke's book of Acts, something recently came to mind. I was preparing myself for discussion and explanations about the topic of speaking in other languages and speaking in tongues. Which...
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Do Our Farms Witness For Christ? (updated)
Not long ago after having read Noah Sanders’ book Born Again Dirt, I made up my mind to work hard to make my homestead productive but also a visually attractive place, too. Sanders wrote that we should be working toward the goal of making our landscapes as beautiful...
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Stewards Of Earth Are We
If we are satisfied that one of our roles as Christians is to steward the Earth – the place He created specifically for us – then the next logical question would be how. We can find our answer in many places in the Bible, but let us focus our attention to what Jesus...
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I Am Not A Luddite
In my efforts to point people to various methodologies of eco-agriculture I often encounter those who dispute these approaches. One of the frequent refrains I hear, “we can’t go back to those old ways, we must use technology to feed the world.” There is a massive...
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