Gathered Around the Fire

Nationally, it was called The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993. Others called it the Great Flood of 1993. While the Minnesota River didn't get its name into the historic titles for that year's flooding, it was a major event in the MN river valley and ranks as the highest river reading ever at Mankato. Ken Weilage, who lived a few miles north of North Mankato on Highway 169, remembers the flood well.  " We were there since 1975 and never had much trouble up until '93," said Weilage. Hearing the predictions of major flooding, Weilage built an earthen dike around the entire five-acre site. While the water rose to the very top of the levee, it protected the buildings from damage. Unlike most floods, which hit southern Minnesota in March or April — the results of heavy snowmelts and spring rains — the flood of 1993 came in June with the river reaching a crest of 30.1 feet June 21 .   And the flooding in 1993 was unique in that it affect...

Today I want to talk about the First Tithe mentioned and therefore the most important of the three  tithes  commanded in Scripture.  I can almost guarantee you have never heard of it.  If you have never heard of it, then you are probably missing out on this tithe of thanksgiving. The word tithe means 10%, to those of us in the USA or Canada that is a dime donated for every dollar earned (our modern equivalent to the biblical 'harvest').  The Feast of the Lord Tithe. I first heard about it in my mid-twenties over a dinner table.  Beyond this dinner conversation, I had never heard this taught in any gatherings I had attended over the last 50 years.  After that dinner, I went home and looked it up in Scripture and sure enough, it was there,  laid out as  plainly   the other two 'lesser' tithes we hear about all the time .    The  FEASTs of the LORD tithe  was to be brought into the presence of the Lord three times a...

The Original Feast of Weeks commemorates the giving of the Torah (instructions) at Mt. Sinai - when the power of God came down on the mountain and God inscribed the law (instructions)  with his own finger  on tablets of stone  hewn out of the mountain with his own hands. The Feast of Weeks comes after the completion of the barley harvest and at first fruits of the Wheat Harvest which comes 50 days after Passover. So when Jesus said... " Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone."  Am I the only one who wondered why Jesus used a kernel of 'wheat' instead of 'barley' as the analogy when he was obviously speaking about himself dying on Passover which happened at the time of the first fruits of the 'barley' harvest? Maybe you never thought about that, but I did. Wow! Barley was considered the bread of affliction (slavery) poor man's bread (survival). It was less nutritious than wheat.  Furthermore, because they hurried...