“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” — Sir Richard Steele
“Even if you are on the right track, but just sit there, you will still get run over.” — Will Rogers
“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” — Martin Luther
“TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they’ll have with twenty-six. Open your child’s imagination. Open a book.” — Unknown
“Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.” — Martin Luther
“Question everything but Scripture.” — Geoff Botkin
“I’m not lost.” — Frank Churchill
“People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors.” — Edmund Burke
“Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.” — Elias Boudinot
“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.” — Jackie Mason
“I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book.” — Groucho Marx
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.” — John C. Maxwell
“Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.” — George Washington
“A ship in the harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.” — John Shedd
“The cold water of persecution is often thrown on the church’s face to fetch her to herself when she is in a swoon of indolence or pride.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“If you don’t fear God, you’ll fear everything.” — Dan Horn
“Non-Christian investigators of nature are as successful as they are because they work with stolen capital.” — Cornelius Van Til
“[N]ot one particle remains to man as a ground of boasting. The whole is of God.” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.3.6)
“We should never do what we cannot pray God to bless.” — James Smith
“Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own.” — Paul Tripp
"When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy." — Corrie ten Boom
“Heaven is eternity in the presence of God through a Mediator. Hell is eternity in the presence of God with no Mediator.” — Tony Reinke
“Drag and Drop for Windows users: DRAG your peecee off your desk, and DROP it in the trash.” — some forum member’s tagline
“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your own living room by people you wouldn’t have in your house.” — David Frost
“The measure of a great teacher isn’t what he or she knows; it’s what the students know.” — John C. Maxwell
“Luther once said, ‘The devil hates goose quills,’ and, doubtless, he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing, have done his kingdom much damage.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“When she married you, she gave you her life to spend. Are you spending your life wisely?” — Dan Horn
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“I will keep the ground that God has given me and perhaps in his grace, he will ignite me again. But ignite me or not, in his grace, in his power, I will hold the ground.” — John Knox
“A lot of men have a wishbone where they ought to have a backbone.” — Unknown
“One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon. Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine.” — Richard Baxter
“[T]he ministry of Satan is employed to instigate the reprobate, whenever the Lord, in the course of his providence, has any purpose to accomplish in them...” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.4.5)
“People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.” — Thomas Sowell
“Man does not need to know exhaustively in order to know truly and certainly.” — Cornelius Van Til
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they simply make the best of everything they have.” — Unknown
“What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.” — J. C. Ryle
“Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.” — Paxton Hood
“True education is not giving in the answer, it’s in showing them how to find it.” — Kelly Crawford
“Thanks, modest girls. Appreciated by a male whose time studying the ground is proportional to each degree of rising temperature.” — Unknown
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." — Edmund Burke
“I began my education at a very early age—in fact, right after I left college.” — Winston Churchill
“You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” — C. S. Lewis
“Paul’s life was a prophetic book for Jews to read and see how to be saved, so our lives should be an easy to read book for the lost on how they can easily be saved.” — Ken Ham
“The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.” — La Rochefoucauld
“People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.” — J. C. Ryle
“Some people get an education without going to college; the rest get it after they get out.” — Mark Twain
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.” — St. Augustine
“The very familiarity of blessings sometimes makes us insensible to their value."— J. C. Ryle
— March 9th, 2012 —
Book Review: “Born-Again Dirt,” by Noah Sanders
“Do you desire to glorify God through the way you farm? Are you tired of reading books on farming and food production that ignore God as Creator? Have you ever wondered what agriculture would look like if it was based on the Bible instead of on evolution, Mother Nature, or the latest manipulations of life by science?
In Born Again Dirt, Noah Sanders encourages Christian farmers to evaluate their farming methods in light of Scripture. This book looks at various Biblical principles related to agriculture and provides examples of practical application. Topics covered include:
-Designing farms as beautiful, fruitful homes.
-Honoring God’s design in farm production
-Growing crops that honor the Lord -Marketing as ministry
-The idolatry of modern agriculture -Advantages of the farming lifestyle
-Starting a farm and making a living.
Without claiming to have all the answers, Born Again Dirt seeks to inspire you to develop a vision for God-glorifying agriculture. This book is a must read for any Christian who is a full time farmer, backyard gardener, or for anyone who desires a more Biblical view of agriculture.” — from the back cover
This, in short, is an excellent book.
In these 190 pages, Noah explains how while we Christian farmers might indeed truly be born-again farmers, we often farm—even unknowingly—according to the world’s methods which are, ultimately, based on unbiblical and pagan concepts. He exhorts a return to Scripture for the true foundation of our farming and agricultural mentality. Nothing like this has been written before; it’s definitely a groundbreaking book (har, har).
Born-Again Dirt is also a fantastic example of someone taking Scripture and seeing what it says about a very specific area of life. We often talk about how Scripture is applicable to all of life, but I’m not sure we always treat it that way. Here, Noah goes through the Bible pulling various principles and patterns from its pages and casts a vision for what truly God-honoring agrarian endeavors should look like. I would like to see books like this written on music, on architecture, on painting, on business models—on every aspect of life!
All in all, I think this is the most important book on farming and agriculture (second to Scripture) that a Christian can have in his or her library. Even if you don’t have control over any land whatsoever, this is a must-read, simply as a great case-study of someone applying Scripture to a very specific topic. Click here to purchase it.
INDECENCY: None.
LANGUAGE: None.
AGE RANGE: All ages.
© 2012 Kyle Shepherd | All Rights Reserved | All images property of their respective owners
Body text set in Fanwood Text Regular & Italic; header set in Nevis.