The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

Page 7 of 93

Goodbye William

This one hurts a little more because he’s been part of our lives for so long…13 years…

We had to say goodbye to William, our first cat. He’d been having some health issues for some time, some of it respiratory, although we found it appeared he had a food allergy to rice that is in most cat food — the Lord graciously granted Sue think of this…feeding him only food with no rice (and we tried to keep wheat away too) seemed to really help him not have any more sinus problems.

Recently though, he started losing weight. But, he was eating fairly normally, and drinking and excreting nicely. With the extreme heat here, we both figured it was related to that, and never really thought to research it. He also seemed very sensitive to the heat but figured it was his age (he was probably around 14 years old), and just kept him laying on ice under dish towels with blue ice bags around, which seemed to help. Well, for whatever reason, I did research last week, and it appears he had all the classic signs of hyperthyroidism — weight loss even with appetite, drinking a lot and peeing a lot, sensitive to heat, panting, etc. Upon further research, there were various things to try naturally, and so we had shipped to us some L-Carnitine, which is one thing that is potentially lacking in this type of situation. But the day it arrived, even though he seemed not that bad in the morning, by late evening, he was gone. 🙁 Thankfully, we were with him as he was going, and Sue was able to be there right at the end.

William, who was named after William III, also known as William of Orange, Protestant king of England, and because our William was the color…wait for it…orange :D, had been rummaging around our neighbor’s garbage, and they were going to permanently “remove” him, but offered him to us in case we wanted him. We had never had a cat before, I used to be allergic to them, but I went there, and the neighbor girl was holding him, and I looked at him, and said we’d take him. There’s more detail in the original post we did on him.

One thing he will be remembered for is how he would almost always join Sue and me for Psalm singing time during our little family worship time. Here’s a little more detail, but I am including the video here again of him doing that:

He was also the inspiration for the first lullaby I wrote, “Hey You Sleepy Head” (I didn’t write it for or to him…it was meant for humans 🙂 )

One time William was chasing around a stray cat, and had it cornered around our camper, but to keep William from the other cat in case it had diseases, I reached down to grab William to take him away. Note, do not do that when a cat is in that mode. William turned and bit the back of my hand. Well, if you know anything about cat bites, it swelled really badly, I had to do I think at least a couple rounds of antibiotics plus soaking my hand in Epsom salts before it went away. But, now I also have a permanent reminder of William as the ring finger on that hand will not straighten as high as the other fingers:

Bent Finger from Cat Bite

Anyway, we’ll miss him a lot.

Finally, here’s his little grave site in the tree grove which is our little pet cemetery:

William's Grave Site
William's Grace Site

Goodbye William…we thank the Lord for the time He granted us to have you.

William's Grace Headstone

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2023 Turkey Chicks – Update I

Leaving off some time after our first 2023 turkey chicks blog post, we thought we’d catch you up with the next update. The Lord has continued to be gracious in granting quite a few more turkey chicks, having them hatch them out in the barn so we can collect them and get them into the summer kitchen/brooder barn.

And here’s a video of those adventures!

As always, we are grateful to God for His provisions, and pray for the continued health of the turkeys and all our animals, as He might grant!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Goat Kids of 2023

With moving our billies and nannies together this last autumn, it was kidding time! Interestingly, only one buck’s two females actually got bred this year, and the other four goats with the other buck didn’t get pregnant. Two are old, so we figure that might be expected, but not with the other two young ones, so we don’t really know what happened. Perhaps we didn’t leave them together long enough, or perhaps something’s going on with the male, and so Lord willing we’ll hopefully see what happens next season.

But, the Lord did graciously grant four bucklings! Besides the picture above, here is his brother:

2023 Goat Kid

And then, here’s their video. If you’re tired of hearing me on the videos most of the time, you get the full narrative from Sue on this one! 😀

Even though it didn’t turn out as anticipated, we thank God that He graciously granted the ones He did, and we pray they will maybe be a blessing to someone else!

— David

David’s Digest: Do We Indeed Love God?, Part 2

Jude 2 - "Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied."

Continuing from Part 1, Puritan Thomas Manton, from his Jude commentary, in helping us examine if we truly love God, notes the evidences when this is true of someone (which implies they must exist), and then offers some helps to increase it.

Again, you can listen to this part verse 2 here:

or download it:

Download

The entire book is available here on Monergism’s site, and this section starts on PDF page 103 near the bottom…

…or you can listen to the entire book on this page:

Thomas Manton – Jude Commentary

From Thomas Manton:

  1. This love must be demonstrated by solid effects, such as are:

    [1.] A hatred of sin: Ps. xcvii. 10, ‘Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.’ With love to the chiefest good, there will be a hatred of the chiefest evil. Friends have common loves, as I said, and common aversations [things we should be averse to]. Upon every carnal motion does your heart recoil upon you, and say, ‘How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God?’ Gen. xxxix. 9; or else, ‘Is this thy kindness to thy friend?’ or ‘after such a deliverance as this,’ &c., Ezra ix. 13. Love to God will be interposing and crossing every carnal motion.

    [2.] By a delight in obedience: 1 John v. 3, ‘This is love, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.’ Nothing is difficult and tedious to him that has any affection to his work. As the prophet cured the bitterness of the wild gourds by casting in meal, so mingle but a little love with your work, and the bitterness is gone. Shechem yielded to be circumcised for Dinah’s sake, because he loved her; and Jacob endured his seven years’ service for Rachel’s sake: so will love make us obey God cheerfully in things contrary to our natural inclination. Love and labour are often coupled in scripture, 1 Thes. i. 3; Heb. vi. 10; and those that left their first works had lost their first love, Rev. ii. 4, 5.

    [3.] Delight in God’s presence, and grief for his absence; or a holy sensibleness both of his accesses and recesses, to and from the soul. Can a man love God, and be content without him? If you lose but a ring which you affect, how are you troubled till it be found again! ‘Ye have taken away my gods (saith he), and do you ask, What aileth thee?’ Judges xviii. 24. So when God is withdrawn, all visits of love and influences of grace are suspended, and they have no communion with him in their duties, should they not mourn? See Mat. ix. 15. Is spiritual love without all kind of passion? or are they Christians that are stupid [like being in a stupor] and insensate [lacking sensibility], and never take notice of God’s coming and going?

These are the evidences. I shall only now suggest two helps to keep up
and increase this love to God, and I have done with this argument.

  1. Prize nothing that comes from God unless you can see his love in it. God gives many gifts to wicked men, but he doth not give them his love. The possession of all things will do us no good unless we have God himself; other mercies may be salted with a curse. God’s children are not satisfied till they can see him and enjoy him in every comfort and mercy. Esau was reconciled to Jacob, and therefore Jacob saith, Gen. xxxiii. 10, ‘I have seen thy face as the face of God.’ It was a token and pledge of the gracious face of God smiling on him. Hezekiah was delivered out of a sickness, and then he doth not say, Thou hast delivered me from the grave; but, ‘Thou hast loved me from the grave,’ Isa. xxxviii. 17.

  2. Prize nothing that you return to God unless there be love in it. We accept a small gift where the party loves, and otherwise the greatest is refused: ‘If I give my body to be burned, and have not love,’ etc., 1 Cor. xiii. 3. Love is an act of grace by itself; other duties are not acts of grace unless they come from love; as alms, fasting, prayer, martyrdom, etc., they are all nothing; οὔδεν εἶμι (says the apostle), ‘I am’ not only little, but ‘nothing.’ On the other side, small things are made great by love; as a cup of cold water, a poor woman’s mite, they are accepted as coming from love.

May we seek from God, and may He grant us, that we hate sin, delight in obedience to Him, delight in His presence, prize nothing but what comes from Him, and may all these be out of love for Him above all things!

— David

David’s Digest: Do We Indeed Love God?, Part 1

Jude 2 - "Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied."

Man’s heart is the director of our minds, wills, and emotions. It’s the seat from which all the issues from within us bend.

But in our natural state, it has the worst problem:

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

This deceit can cause us to think we love God but perhaps actually don’t. There will be evidences.

And so we are commanded to be on the watch, because of how central the heart is:

Proverbs 4:23 - "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

Puritan Thomas Manton helps us examine if we really love God, and begins in this part with the heart. It comes from his excellent commentary on the Epistle of Jude.

You can listen to this part verse 2 here:

or download it:

Download

The entire book is available here on Monergism’s site, and this section starts on PDF page 101 near the bottom…

…or you can listen to the entire book on this page:

Thomas Manton – Jude Commentary

From Thomas Manton:

Use. Well, then, saints mind your work. Do you indeed love God? Christ puts Peter to the question thrice, John xxi. A deceitful heart is apt to abuse you. Ask again and again, Do I indeed love God? Evidences are these:-

  1. If you love God, he will be loved alone; those that do not give all to God, give nothing; he will have the whole heart. If there were another God, we might have some excuse for our reservations; but since there is but one God, he must have all, for he doth not love in mates.

    When the harbingers [who go a day’s journey before the king to make accommodations] take up a house for a prince, they turn out all; none must remain there, that there may be room for his greatness. So all must avoid, that God may have the sole possession of our hearts.

    The devil, that has no right to anything, would have a part, for by that means he knows the whole will fall to him; conscience will not let him have all, and therefore he would have a part to keep possession: as Pharaoh stood hucking [haggling] with Moses and Aaron; if not the Israelites, then their little ones; if not their little ones, then their herds; if not their herds, then their flocks: but Moses tells him there was not a hoof to be left.

    So Satan, if he cannot have the outward man, yet he would have the heart; if there be not room enough in the heart for every lust [generally, any corrupt desire], then he craves indulgence in some things that are less odious and distasteful; if conscience will not allow drunkenness, yet a little worldliness is pleaded for as no great matter.

    But the love of God cannot be in that heart where the world reigns. Dagon and the ark could not abide in the same temple; neither can the heart be divided between God and mammon.

    All men must have some religion to mask their pleasures and carnal practices, that they may be favourable to their lusts [corrupt desires] and interests with less remorse; and usually they order the matter so, that Christ shall have their consciences, and the world their hearts and affections.

    But, alas! they do not consider that God is jealous of a rival; when he comes into the heart, he will have the room empty. It is true, we may love other things in subordination to God, but not in competition with God; that is, when we love God and other things for God’s sake, in God and for God.

    When a commander hath taken a strong castle, and placed a garrison in it, he suffers [allows] none to enter but those of his own side, keeping the gate shut to his enemies. So we must open the heart to none but God, and those that are of God’s party and side, keeping the gate shut to others. We may love the creatures [anything created] as they are of God’s side, as they draw our hearts more to God, or engage us to be more cheerful in service, or give us greater advantages of doing good.

    Of what party are they? Bring nothing into your heart, and allow nothing there, that is contrary to God. When Sarah saw Ishmael scoffing at Isaac, she thrust him out of doors. So when riches, and honour, and the love of the world upbraid you with your love to God, as if you were a fool to stand so nicely upon terms of conscience, etc., when they encroach and allow Christ no room but in the conscience, it is time to thrust them out of doors, that the Lord alone may have the preeminence in our souls.

May God grant us diligence in keeping our hearts, and may we seek His help and power in this important work!

Continue on to part 2

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2nd Round of 2023 Chicken Chicks

We had a broody hen I believe in the main chicken tractor, so we put her and a bunch of eggs in the mini tractor, and God graciously granted a 2nd round of chicks this 2023!

These are obviously a little older 🙂 :

We just moved them into the pen area the other day too.

Sadly, one has some eye problems, but has made it all this time, and hopefully it will be ok in the pen area.

And here’s their video:

As always, we are grateful to the Lord for His provisions, and we pray for their safety and health!

— David

Psalm Singing – June 2023

We have continued to work through learning the Psalms from the psalter we use, and have finished recording them — Psalms 106A-107E, in the hopes they might help someone be able to learn them too and sing them to the Lord.

And here they are:

(If the above player doesn’t work, or if you would like to save any of the files locally to your computer, you can click the Download link below, or right click it and click Save As in the popup menu.)

Psalms 106A-107E

Let us always raise our voices in praise to the Lord!

Psalm 30:4 – “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

— David

Previous Psalms singings:

Psalms 1A-12B (minus 4B)
Psalms 4B & 13-18L
Psalms 19A-22E
Psalms 22F-24C
Psalms 25A-27F
Psalms 28A-31G
Psalms 32A-34D
Psalms 35A-37F
Psalms 38B-40F
Psalms 41A-44F
Psalms 45A-49C
Psalms 50A-53
Psalms 54A-59B
Psalms 60A-65B
Psalms 66A-68E
Psalms 69A-71D
Psalms 72A-76B
Psalms 77A-78H
Psalms 79A-84B
Psalms 85A-89H
Psalms 90A-93A
Psalms 94A-98B
Psalms 99A-103D
Psalms 104A-105E
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