Bullock Standing
There is an interesting quote I came across and I wish to share it with you all, and it goes like this; “There is a Bullock Standing between a Plough and an Altar.” So of course the obvious question to ask is, “Which way will it turn?” The Bullock can either go to the Altar, and lay down its life as a Sacrifice for others, or it can turn to the Plow and put its mighty strength into working day in and day out both ploughing and hauling loads. In our life we stand in the same position, but a smart Christian gets Jesus Christ to choose for them. Sometimes it turns out to be both, a Missionary often goes out to plough and to sow the Gospel Seed, and then ends up as a Sacrifice and sows their own life, dying in a foreign mission land for the Gospel Message.
In Nautical Terms, it is often referred to as being between a “Rock and a Hard Place” which often is referred to a seaman having to crawl deep into the hull of a ship, down where the Rocks for Ballast were, and it was a very cramped and a dangerous place, for in a moving sea, things can easily move about and even trap you or harm you in an almost inaccessible place.
For our Bullock, it can be termed as looking at this as, “Six of one or half-a-Dozen of the other.” Neither choice is that appetizing at all, but it is all about “Service” and “Serving Others” so which way will the very best be achieved, but we in the Christian walk are not always looking at the “easy way out” but we want to be “where Jesus can best use us,” to his honour and glory. While we are in this transition, we need to be close to our Saviour, Close to his word, and deep into a solid prayer life so that when any request comes in clear and strong, we are all “packed and ready” and skilled and up to whatever may come our way.
Are we scared, no, not really, as we have our Heavenly Promises, like this one in Hebrews 13:5 “[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Or this one in Romans 8:31-39 “What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? [It is] God that justifieth. Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So we are as they say “Bullet Proof” as nothing can get to us unless Father God permits it, and then it is not allowed to overpower us, as we have this promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].” God is available and all Heaven is available, so all we have to do is to “Cling to Jesus Christ,” to “Claim the Promises” and to move under the promptings of the Holy Spirit in the correct direction, whether it be to the Altar or to the Plough.
Job in his frightening and instantaneous flood of mega disasters, clung to God and his promises. He had no idea where they came from, or how he was selected for this traumatic experience, he just trusted and clung to “The Almighty Arms” and knew that God had everything under his control. We have his assurance in this verse as found in Job 1:21-22 “And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”
Job had daily laid all his entirety upon the Altar, and each morning he plead to God for his Family and all his belongings, so when it all disappeared in a moment, Job still clung to God, and he “sinned not, nor charged God foolishly,” so how about you and I, are we going to start “The Blame Game,” or will we quote Job and say, “the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Dear Reader; we are back to our opening Quote; “There is a Bullock Standing between a Plough and an Altar.” That Bullock represents each of us, so will you in Humble Obedience and Service “Pick up your Cross and follow Jesus” no matter which path is laid out before you? John 10:29 “My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand.”
