Well folks… here’s the way we see our 2012 Blueberry Season.

It looks as if we’ve lost a good percentage of berries with our April Frost/Freeze… maybe even up to 75 %! It appears that our hopes for a full blown U-Pick seem doubtful.

The bushes have not fruited evenly and the ripening stage appears to be thwarted. Ripening was definitely slowed down due to the previous weeks cooler temperatures. The coming weeks forecast for warmer weather will help.

As we have berries of quantity ripen we will announce a U-Pick via our website, hopefully with a 1-2 day notice. If you would like to receive an email notification, please email us at blueberriesrus@bellsouth.net ,put MAIL LIST in the subject line.

So… Alan was out in the blueberries with Moses yesterday… cutting grass for the first time this season.. great day for it! The buds that were showing at my last writing are now BLOOMS! According to our research, blooms now make for an early berry season- possibly as much as a month early! We could be looking at a mid to late May U-Pick.

Now we’re still watching the weather- remember 2007? We sure do. This is farming and nature… anything can happen!

Lastly for today… Due to several major computer malfunctions and deaths, we no longer have a solid email list of our previous customers. If you wish to be kept informed of all the U-Pick happenings please subscribe to our blog.

I heard an UGLY rumor this morning at the car care center in LaGrange…. just UGLY!

A friend happened to be in the same place as I this morning, both having our cars worked on… when she said, “I heard that you weren’t ‘doing a U-Pick’ anymore, no more blueberries?!”  OH Me OH My- gotta stop this right away!

Thanks to an early early spring like weather, our berries are just days away from flowering. What does this mean you ask? Well, it means there had better be NO FREEZING WEATHER!!!    In 2007 we had blooms the first of April… then we had freezing weather for several days… then we had… no BERRIES!

Secondly, it means we may have berries earlier- we’ll have to just wait and see. 

And, just for assurance, Blueberry Hill Farm IS having a U-PICK this summer.

For those of you with children, turn to page 83 in Kyle Idleman’s book, ‘not a fan’… what? You don’t have the book? Buy it! You can get it through Amazon.com, notafan.com, or at a Lifeway Christian bookstore.

On page 83, Kyle recounts a meeting he had with a father in Houston TX. The father had a prodigal daughter. Kyle states, “As soon as he started the story I knew how it would go. I’ve heard it so many times, even the details seem predictable.”  When the man finished speaking, he didn’t look or ask for an explanation, instead he gave one:  “We raised her in church, but we didn’t raise her in Christ.”  Paraphrasing the last paragraph on the page… we taught her to keep the rules but never about having a relationship with Jesus. We taught her to be a fan of Jesus- instead of being a follower.*All of this is on page 83 of ‘not a fan’, beginning in the second paragraph*

This is such a true… and painful reality. We take our children to church 2-3 times a week, then to special activities and groups. When they graduate out of the  ’youth group’, we don’t understand their disinterest in church, why they want to walk away. I know I didn’t understand why until many years later… many years.

The Bible (God) doesn’t say “Take them to church that they may grow in me and learn to love me.” It plainly states in Deuteronomy 6:  6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. It is the responsibility of the parent to teach their children, to introduce them to God himself, to model a genuine fear, reverence and love for Him ourselves, that they will desire to follow hard after Him.

I now know that I gave my responsibility away to the church because of my lack and my laziness. My lack of hunger, my lack of knowledge. And fear. It is a HUGE responsibility to … bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.(Eph 6:4b) Laziness as in, if I had to teach them, then I had to learn and grow first! Unfortunately at that time of my life I was all about soaking it up, being fed and led, dancing and shouting, and looking down on those who ‘didn’t have the Spirit’ as I knew it. So, I say, ‘I am sorry’ to my oldest children. I love you and wish I knew then what I know now. Parents only operate with their current level of understanding.

So, train up your children in the Lord.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind strength and soul.  Meet with God first, then share with your children.

You will faint if you reap not!

For those of you who watch just to find out what’s for sale… this might not be for you. I am posting a question (I have my own thoughts as to the correct answer) that comes up quite frequently in witnessing.

“I just want to have fun before I become a Christian.”

What does this mean? Does this person already know what it means to be a Christian? If so, then he/she has sat under biblical teaching and understood what was being said… is he/she now accountable? What happens if he/she is in an accident? Has he/she actually made a decision?

I see that he/she is not converted, that he/she has not made a ‘decision’ for Christ, but doesn’t he/she already have the knowledge? Isn’t he/she now making a decision to not follow?

What if there is ‘no later’??

We are ‘attending’ church these days versus ‘homechurching’ for a number of reasons. I will not go into them here, suffice it to say that “now is not the time.” We have chosen, or God has directed us to Oldham Woods Church of Christ in LaGrange KY. If you’re in the neighborhood, searching, or just wondering- stop in and listen.

A young man in the congregation spoke last Wednesday, he gave an Invitation prior to the Bible Study class and with his permission-”You are more than welcome to post it wherever you would like. No need to add authorship to it, their not my words but God’s. He is the only one who deserves the credit and glory.”

 Here it is as he wrote it:

I want you to ask yourself a question.

 Are you Convinced or are you Converted?

 You know, it seems that when we talk to a lot of people, when we discuss God’s word with them. They seem to be hard-headed, stubborn, or just set in their ways.

 But maybe that’s not the case at all, maybe they are just convinced. Convinced that the way they are living is ok, that they are right in the eyes of God.

 They have been persuaded by the facts that they have been given or taught that they are right in the sight of God.

 And you know; there are a whole lot of people in this world just like that. Those who are in the denominations, those who have no church affiliation at all, and maybe some here in the Church, those who are just simply convinced.

 Convinced that there is a God, that He does exist, that He is Holy, Righteous, and all powerful. Convinced that He created all, that He sees, hears, and knows everything.

 They are convinced that they know who Jesus Christ is. Convinced that He is the Son of God, that He came to this world from heaven, and that He freely gave his life and died upon the cross so that our sins could be forgiven, so that our salvation could be possible.

 They are also convinced that they way they believe, the way they think, and the way they feel in the heart is ok with God, that they are living faithful Christian lifestyles.

But they are wrong.

You see just being convinced wont save your soul from hell. Just being convinced is not going to guarantee you a place in heaven when your time in this world ends.

 Only through conversion can our soul obtain the salvation that is so desperately needs. Only through conversion is God’s grace and mercy extended to us.

 To be converted means that a turn must happen, that a change must take place in your life.

 And if you have made no turn, if there has been no change in the way you live your life, they way you think, or the way you feel in your heart, then you have not truly been converted, just convinced.

To be converted you MUST follow the steps to salvation that God has laid out for us in His Word.

You must make that faithful and true confession of Christ.

 You must repent of your sins, and turn from your old life, your old habits, and your old way of thinking and feeling and turn to God, and to His Word.

 You must accept and come to realize that His Word is the only real truth you will ever know in this life. That His way is better than your way, that His thoughts are greater than your thoughts, and that His Word is far greater than the way you feel in your heart.

 Put on Christ in baptism, and have your soul washed clean of it’s sins. Let that burden of sin that your soul has carried for so long go. Turn from your old life and turn down that righteous path that leads to life everlasting in heaven. And God will add you to His Kingdom, you can be truly converted, and we must remain faithful till death.

So, are you just convinced or are you converted? Ask yourself the question know, and if the answer to the question leaves you wanting, needing correction. Than please, make those corrections in your life, take the steps you must take toward salvation, and get your soul right with God before it is too late.

? How many of us have the knowledge of God? How many of us know about God? How many of us can recite passage after passage, book after book, timelines etc?

More importantly, How many of us are known by God?

                                  ARE YOU SURE?

                     IF NOT, MAKE SURE TODAY!

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted,

because they are no more.” 

That is from Matthew 2:18, or if you’re an OT kinda person,  it was also quoted in Jeremiah 31:15.

Have you ever wondered if animals mourn? I have. Today, one of our prized dairy goats, miscarried. Not just one, but three. All way too young, no fur, not anywhere near complete in form but close. 

We’ve been waiting for Dreama to deliver… for 3 days! We thought she was ‘showing’ a bit early- well really, a month early. We just pushed off the ‘what-if she’s miscarrying’ thought, and replaced it with, “Wow, how did I miss her date by so much!?” That thought was much easier to deal with.

How terribly sad, to lose what yesterday was growing inside of you. All of our thoughts, our dreams, our plans… gone. Not to mention the closeness of family. It’s all gone. Most of the time it is unexplainable- it is just nature… God’s way. That doesn’t make it any easier to understand or deal with.

This afternoon, Dreama was baw(l)ing. Loudly. Sadly. Nosing around in the hay… the hay prepared for her family… finding none. No comfort. Just baw(l)ing. How long will her sadness continue? I don’t know. My sadness comes back each time I pass the two cute little cherubs in our garden. You know, the ones placed to remind us of our little ones that didn’t make it. That has been several years now. Sometimes, like now, I will let myself wonder, “What would it be like, here in our family with two more children?” I don’t let it overtake me though… my two sons need me in the present; giving my past to God and trusting in His wisdom for my future. I just wish that Dreama could feel that same peace.