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Buster's REO Back to Gallery This 1954 REO Gold Comet was purchased in 1956 by Buster (Frank Redfield). They were living in Atlanta at the time, but his father was back on the wheat farm in Opheim, Montana and gettin' on in years. This wheat farm is one of the original 'homestead' grants from back at the turn of the century, and has been in the family all these years. So, Buster had to head home to take over operation of the farm... and this old truck was loaded with all their personal possessions and headed back home! Show Me More

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Rust Bucket Back to Gallery This is my current full-time vehicle. It is a 1958 F100 and had a Power Train transplant before I bought it in 2017. This is my daily driver and has been since April 2017, and drove it from the Phoenix, AZ area (my home back then) to Austin, TX (my parents' home) on three occasions (it is 1013 miles one-way). It is a runn'n old truck and I really enjoy all the "who needs creature-comfort things (you even have to cancel the turn signals yourself). All in, and to-date, I have driven this truck some 40,000+ miles and intend to use it until they ban gasoline! ;-) The photos are of two groupings, the ones 'with' the USA Flag on the truck bed are my photos, and all the others (without the flag) are from the Craigslist Ad where I found and bought it. Show Me More

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What happens when God uses words we never heard, before. This story is about having faith without understanding. It will 'make your boat float', as it were! Previous It’s Gonna Zorple! What happens when God uses words we never heard, before. This story is about having faith without understanding. It will 'make your boat float', as it were! It’s Gonna Zorple! Next It’s Gonna Zorple! by G.W. Bill Elliott, Jr. It’s Gonna Zorple! I was recently thinking about Noah… I mean… in those “last days” when they were all gathered inside that boat… sitting there, staring out of that door opening… hearing the jesting and jeering from the folks on the outside… Finding it VERY curious how they could be so insensitive to the pending doom… This all got me to thinking about THAT Ark ‘from’ the outside… I mean… ME actually being there… seeing all this transpire… hearing all the noise… having lived with this ‘god awful’ “thing” being built in my neighborhood was bad enough, but then… all those animals… all the dog-gone pounding… hammering… sawing… the bleating of the sheep… the roaring of the Lions… and then, the smell… Ugh!! I really MUST check into the city ordinance, and see if this sort of thing is even allowed within the walls of the city… Why, oh WHY would ANYONE want to build this boat-thing SO far from ANY body of water? These people have completely lost their minds… at first, I thought they were going to just use ‘skids’ to scoot it to the water. But, they all kept saying that God was going to make it “Zorple”… and it would “Zorple” so much, that this entire land will FILL with it… it will ‘flood’ the entire area… Right!!? Do you see just how large an area this is… there isn’t any Zorple anywhere NEAR here… where is all this Zorple going to come from?? And even if there was a flooding of Zorple… it would HAVE to be SO much… that boat is MASSIVE! Those people have truly snapped…. What fools…. you can see them sitting in there… with all those animals… just waiting… what idiots… and then, there is this HUGE hole… the doorway… they haven’t even closed the door… morons!! What a spectacle they are making… they look SO ridiculous… And then, all that thinking… that ‘revisiting’ the “what must have been” stuff that was happening in those last days… really got me to thinking… You see… the Bible ‘does’ say “…as it was in the ‘days of Noah’, so it shall be in the days of the ‘coming of man‘”… and I really got to thinking about the entire ‘scene’ of the “days of Noah”… but, more-so… I seemed to focus my attention on that door… it WAS just standing there… open. Who builds a huge boat like that… gets SO prepared to ‘go’… gets everyone and everything in there… and does NOT close the door? Something peculiar about that… And in the midst of all that… do you remember HOW that door was closed… and who closed it?? See… Gen 7:16 – says “ … and the LORD shut them in. ” I guess that has really been bugging me lately… not in a bad way at all… just… putting myself in that boat… having a compassionate heart…. wanting THEM to be in here with us… those folks on the outside… jeering at us… knowing how much I trust the Lord… how much I believe he’ll do JUST as He said… and taking the jesting… and the ridicule… and knowing that soon, the rain will fall… and soon (ooohhhh, I am trusting I am NOT an utter idiot!), the Lord WILL complete this promise to cleanse the land. And yet… NO ONE on that boat took any precaution to close that door… and all of a sudden… that huge door DID rock shut… with SUCH an awesome noise… It was a noise to be heard THROUGH eternity!! No turning back… up to THAT very moment, Noah and his family were walking by FAITH!! They were trusting the unseen… They were believing the unbelievable… They were living the unlivable… They had conceived the inconceivable… in the face of the jesting… the ridicule… the discomfort… the utter ‘ugliness’ of what they were even doing… in that ark… crammed all together with all those animals… the smell. That must have been some sight, to say the very least… but, that very moment when the huge door closed… was SUCH a defining moment in all our lives… no longer was this commitment by faith ONLY… no longer was their faith “INTANGIBLE”… all of a sudden… in the twinkling of an eye… their faith was made SURE… the evidence of their commitment to their faith was SEALED!! See that?? And here is the part I just break down over… I mean… I ‘can’ get SO excited that the ‘journey is finally beginning”… but I am quickly brought back to THIS reality… remember… that huge door closed… and they ‘likely’ sat there for days and days… and DAYS!! I mean… sure… the door closed… and it SO felt like the ‘ride was about to begin’… but, now they have the folks on the outside STILL jesting… STILL throwing rocks at the ark… STILL ridiculing you… mocking… completely oblivious to the pending doom… and while your faith JUST had this burst of ‘evidence’ with the door closing on it’s own… you certainly have to be (again) wondering about the bigger picture… and just what it is God is doing… Why He takes SO long to do stuff. And now… this ark FILLED with “two-by-two” is also starting to smell… and feel SO musty… and the voices of the people outside are getting louder… makes me wonder just HOW faithful I would have been there… How trusting I would have really been…… and then…… and then…… and I do mean… AND THEN…… you begin to hear the pattering of something on the surface of that huge boat… you see… those folks had NEVER seen rain (Zorple)!! This was SUCH a foreign word to them… it did NOT mean anything to them… this Zorple warning was falling of deaf ears… and even in those days, God was ‘clearly’ saying to the people of the land “…he that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying...”!! See… they did NOT know what it meant to have water ‘falling from the sky’… up to that moment in time… the earth was just “watered with the dew of the night“… and they had not ever REALLY been able to experience the ‘rain from the heavens’ (Zorple – it is a word “I” invented to emphasize how ‘they’ must have felt when ‘they’ heard it too)!! And when the water began to fall… it had to have had such an impact on everyone… to be experiencing something SO new like that… and then to have it raining SO hard… that the ground can finally no longer absorb it all… it has no other place to run off… Again… God was using a mechanism to cleanse the earth… cleanse our lives of the sin… He was telling them that it was going to RAIN 40 days and 40 nights… right?? Well… they had NEVER seen rain, or experienced it’s passion, it’s fury… it’s ability to ‘flood’!! Therefore, this ‘threat’ was SO foreign to them… It SO didn’t mean anything… in so many ways (faith in the unseen)… getting us SO close to just how consistent the Lord is throughout the ages, in that, even in those days He was saying “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying“!! And still… the Bible says, “As it was in the days of Noah…. so it shall be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man“!! The people are SO unrighteous… He was going to cleanse it of EVERYTHING… but he found Noah to be a righteous man… and spared his family… if they obeyed. See… God ‘chose’ Noah… God had mercy on Noah… And God will also use you, in these last days… just before that huge door closes… those fleeting moments passing…. God calling on your heart… Please answer! Just when WILL you believe? Do you really need to see the ark being built? Do you really need to see the people and animals all getting in? Do you really need to see that huge door close on it’s own? Do you really need to feel that pitter-patter of Zorple on your face? Do you really need to feel the exhaustion from treading the zorple that has risen… higher than you could EVER comprehend? Do you really need to be brought SO close to death, to accept such a rich life? To accept such a wonderful gift of grace, mercy, and forgiveness? For we ‘all’ have come short of God’s glory. So… now, I am sitting on the inside. Finally feeling more relief that this journey has actually begun, yet very trepidatious for the future. I too have never been in a flood. I too have never known rain… have never seen so much water cover the land. And, I notice that the jeering and the rock throwing and the ridicule has changed… in fact, there seems to be a lull in the crowd that has been gathering around that ark. Still, I can hear them chatting amongst themselves, and still ‘some’ jeering… a few rocks… a few shouts of ‘save yourselves’… but, generally, it’s much quieter. And it is raining now… raining like I have never seen or heard. And some of the people are beginning to pound and scratch on the side of that ark… no longer throwing rocks, or jeering… in fact, there’s a sound of desperation in their voices… a sound of begging… a sound of pleading…. For us to open the door, and let them into the ark… I certainly would, if I could… but, I didn’t close it… that door is way too big for anyone but God to open or close. Still, I do give consideration to how to ‘save’ these people…. How to get them into this ark of safety… Nothing? It appears as though their only salvation was to have believed, as we did… when chosen to have answered the calling. It appears that NOW it is too late… faith is something that occurs BEFORE seeing…. Not after. And the noise of these people’s begging… their clawing and screaming at the side of that boat… it has begun to shift off it’s footings… the props we’d used to hold it upright, while we were building it… and the water is splashing around all on the outside…. And the noise of their screaming…. Crying…. Pleading for us to let them in… to save them…. NOW they believe…. They are claiming they didn’t understand then… they were too busy to REALLY listen… to really notice…. Yet… they are still on the outside of that great ark of salvation…. Such a painful thing to hear, to live through… for these screaming, drowning people, were my best friends… my next door neighbors… my club-members… parents to my children’s friends…. Yet, they choose to NOT listen… to NOT follow the Lord…. and remain righteous in His eyes. See… that’s actually what started this whole cleansing process. God had finally gotten tired of the reprobate minds… tired of the unrighteousness of it all… tired of YOU, not following Him. Sure, other’s are not following… but YOU are responsible for YOU! No other. Not even your children, your parents, or your dear loved one(s). YOU!! Behold, NOW is the day of salvation. Please… Please… get into the ark with us…. Quickly… before that great door closes. Please… look around you… it will soon begin to Zorple… and then, it will be too late. I want you there, with me… with us. Please…. Please, come in!!

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Too often we end up repeating what we heard or read without really giving it all much thought. This story is about taking the time and energy to have an original thought, for a change. Previous Regurgitationalistics Too often we end up repeating what we heard or read without really giving it all much thought. This story is about taking the time and energy to have an original thought, for a change. Regurgitationalistics Next Regurgitationalistics by G.W. Bill Elliott, Jr. Regurgitationalistics Practice Original Thought Man has never invented a single thing (as of this writing)… ever never… nothing new… never… not one new element has been introduced into life. All we’ve done is ‘assemble’ things to be something else, and we call it ‘inventing’. Semantics, I know… but our thoughts and the many things we voice (communicate) have the same tendency… regurgitating things in a different way, but they are the same droning message (repeating news, citing scripture, gossip, etc)… over and again. Like we found a dirty, old, encrusted nickel… polished it up and claimed it as our own… holding it up for the world to see and in turn exclaiming our excitement for this new nickel of ours. Sure… the word “ Regurgitationalistics ” doesn’t even exist… well… it might now… since I am using it. Essentially I morphed the word Regurgitation, which fundamentally means; to give back or repeat, especially something not fully understood or assimilated . Now… I am not writing this to teach you some fancy form or regurgitation… rather… I have noticed that we tend to get all caught up communicating and sharing thoughts, ideas, “news and information” and that we easily fall into the trap of just being talking-heads… mostly. Giving almost NO thought to what we are sharing… just too busy repeating something we heard… something we saw… something someone else shared with us. Almost monkey-like in our zeal to ‘pass along’ some nugget of information… as though we are getting a finders-fee, or accolades for being the one to discover such a nugget… all gleeful and pleased with ourselves. This rapid-fire means of passing information along is leaving us brainless… training us to think-less about the message(s) we are passing along… giving us that instant gratification that we did society a favor by ensuring this message doesn’t die on my doorstep… at my feet… on my watch…. that it carries on into the future… that somewhere, somehow, someone is touched by it. So many of our social-websites provide the coolest tools to help us pass-along things that we either find, or their website (feed) has found for us… see… as you are finally realizing (hopefully), these sites ‘watch’ you and track your trends… follow your links… ‘listen’ to your words, and that in turn allows them show you stuff… and you get impressed and ‘touched’ by some moving statement… some touching sunset with the most romantic or spiritual-ish-sounding-probably-true statement… you can just NOT resist posting it to your ‘friends’…. without EVER adding your own commentary… without EVER telling us what ‘that’ means to you… how ‘that’ touched your heart (or mind) and motivated you to share it with us. Many years ago now, I was sharing some of my photography with an artist Uncle of mine… he spotted this photo I’d snapped in the Golden Gate Park (circa 1984) and asked if he could have it enlarged and mounted for me… uh…. sure, Uncle Leon, knock yourself out. I didn’t see what he saw. He gave this mounted and framed photo back to me some weeks later. He’d signed and dated it (he’s an artist, remember)… but… what he titled it to THIS day has changed not only how I look at ‘things’, but why I even bother trying to share them with you (and others). “Mary Had a Little Lamb” Initially… I thought…. “OoooKKkkkayy… uh… what?”, but then I realized he’d named it “Mary Had a Little Lamb” because to him… it represented Mary (the larger rose) who’d had the Lamb of God (the littler rose). Wow…Yea… tears still well up in my eyes… two reasons… I was that blind before and didn’t get it… and I now see. Too many people would just name something like this photo, “Roses”, or “Garden Roses”… nothing all too creative or ‘communicative’ about a deeper reason this photo was captured in the first place. You know… the whole ‘what inspires you to snap a photo?’ or, ‘what caught your eye about that photo?’ Give us SOME original thought about the things that inspire you in your life. Recognizing beauty, quality, even spotting acceptable character traits in others is no place to stop… I mean… passing some lovely photo along to others… even more-so when it has some ‘perfect’ quote in it… is just SO tempting. When you see something like that, you may consider, “oh… I need to show others this ‘nugget of truth’ and pass it along to those around me!” NOT! Take some time to consider ‘why’ that moves you… ‘why’ it caught your attention… and ‘why’ you are bothering to share it with us. Tell us how that makes ‘you’ feel… what you are experiencing and why that seems to impact you. OK… maybe you’re not thinking all that deeply about these snippets of information. But, that IS the point… we are learning to NOT have an original thought… we are losing touch with taking the time to consider something before passing it along… to even add ‘our flavor’ to it. No… not change the story and make it your own… just that we need to take a little more time to learn to express something uniquely ours… not passing along someone else’s wittiness, skill, or keen observation. Many years ago now, I was getting regular texts from a dear friend… a Christian brother who has been saved ’bout as long as me… we both were baptized at the same time in the same place. Cass would send me scriptures via texts on my phone. Two things that were bad about this; This was back in the day when text messages cost 10 cents per message (depending on your ‘plan’), and some of the passages he would send would spread across 4 or 6 text messages…. costing me some 60 cents each time! He never, EVER had any comment about the passage… never EVER prefaced it or followed up with some “and I think” commentary. One day, I finally texted him back and asked him to either start telling me WHY this scripture inspires him to send it, or stop sending them. Uh… he stopped sending them! And, that is the core of my point… we get our warm-fuzzies passing things along, but we rarely add anything about the ‘thing’ or what it means to us at that moment… why we are forwarding, why we are tagging, why we are ‘liking’, why we are even making any fuss over it. Technology devices today make it so easy to ‘pass it along’… to quickly let others know and see this ‘magical’ snippet that has moved us. Without us meaning to let it happen, this is teaching us to mimic godliness… to repeat what we see, or hear… to ‘be like’ we are spiritual. Over time and with repetition, we are going to convince even ourselves how ‘close to God’ we are, or how ‘not like those sinners’ we are, and worse… how much closer we are to good than evil. And… that gets us closer to ‘the rub’… the flaw… the core problem with regurgitating information… to retweeting… to liking… to simply ‘tagging’ things for which you approve. You invested NO time or energy into it all… you merely ‘raised your hand in approval’. We are becoming life-like, but not full of life… rather robotic and calculated. They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: Psalms 115:6 Going through the motions is getting easier and easier to do. With SO many ways to learn to do things, from DIY channels, to websites, to the well stocked YouTube site… almost anything you want to learn can be found. But, it is these subtle mechanisms in our lives these days that is making it tougher for us to even notice it is happening. So much so, that we are warned that our ‘acting like God’ mannerisms are going to blind-side us… going to catch us right at the very worst time in our lives when it is too late. Notice this warning Jesus gave us; Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:22-23 Seems odd to me… I mean, the people recognize they were doing things “in thy name”, yet they come up short of the Lord’s hope for our lives… the ministry He wants us to portray. But, to have the Lord say, “…depart from me, I never knew you” seems harsh. Remember… it is NOT how well we know the Lord… it is how well the Lord knows us! Practice original thought… learn to express your thoughts… learn to personalize that ‘like’… learn to embellish that ‘retweet’… learn to make a topic your own. Any monkey can ‘pass it along’, like you are in some Chinese Fire Drill line, or something. How? Two key elements; 1) Study & Rightly divide His word, and 2) Grow Some Fruit. Me?? There have always been two scriptures or ‘phrases’ I have kept close in my heart and mind… “Study to show thyself approved” and “Rightly dividing the word”. Then, learn to ‘attach’ some scripture or some godly principle… even just to share something from your life or heart that inspires you to ‘tag’ this photo, this phrase, or this special link (on the social media sites). Almost all of us recognize beauty… almost all of us recognize quality… almost all of us recognize something inspiring, or motivating, or even just simply something that ‘matters in life’, like a quote, a phrase, or a nugget of truth. Take an extra little moment… take a little extra thought-time… take a little extra energy and just include how/why this ‘thing’ matters to you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. Matthew 24:5 THAT right there is one of the core reasons we need to do two things; 1) add some additional dialog or feedback about the ‘share’ you are passing along, and 2) just pass-over any ‘share’ someone else has passed on without really giving it much more attention. See… the subtly of heresy… the quiet agreeableness of half-truth… the believability of most of the ‘good things in life’ can actually ease you into a compromising acceptance of the wisdom of the world. Before you are even aware, it becomes a second-nature response in your life… becomes a go-to- statement you might use when someone asks “how is your day”, or “how is your faith”, or even deeper and more critical… “how is your walk with God”. Splitting hairs? No… separating the sheep from the goats, though! See… being aware of God’s word… being “learned” in the details… being exposed to His teaching enough to thwart the wayward and slippery-slope twists that can be tossed about… it is very important. Now… not everyone is going to be a writer… not everyone is going to be a preacher… not everyone is going to be a singer… and so on. You are you… you are His child, called to be who He wants you to be… be that! Just… resist doing the quick-n-dirty ‘like’… the simple scan ‘retweet’… the rushed five word reply to someone’s ‘share’. But, learn to apply YOUR ‘fruit’ from the Lord… the special skill… the special ‘insight’ the Lord has bestowed in your life… or is trying to bestow. See… 1 Corinthians 12:8-12 reminds us we all have different ‘fruits’ from a life lived in the Lord… and, fruit is the PROOF that there is life… fruit is the result of a mature and well established plant… fruit is the benefit the plant has gleaned from a hearty root system, great exposure to sun, and deep and rich consumption of the nutrients in the ground. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:8-12 Now… do NOT get out there and pounce on any and every ‘violator’ of this regurgitationalistic problem… do not seek them out… do not hunt them down and terrorize them until they repent or cease to be so flippant as to just ‘like’ things on the social sites. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3:15 , “ But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: “. That is to say that we are to prepare our hearts… prepare our minds… prepare our life… ‘they’ will notice… ‘they’ will take heed…. ‘they’ will ultimately ask you, and you can then ‘give account of the hope that is within you’. But, if you continue to use the social sites to ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ or even to ‘post a link’ without even including your commentary on the matter… you are missing an opportunity to personalize why that ‘like’ even matters. You may be one of those kind of people who just prefer to keep your opinion to yourself… to keep silent… to avoid a conflict… even to just resolve to keep the peace, as it were. All those are possibly just how the Lord has developed you to be. More times than not, though… these are escape routes for us… they are tactics we have quietly surrendered to in our lives just to chug through this tough life without making matters worse, more complicated and just working toward being less conflicting. Chicken! Too many times, it is also being unsure of what to even say… where to ‘challenge’ others… or to question the half-truth of some “accept all people” poem or quote. That is why I’d mentioned studying the Word of the Lord… learning the ins-n-outs… exposing yourself to the deeper details. Point of reference… ready? There were more than “two of each animal” ushered onto the Ark! Think I am joking? Go check it out! They went IN “two-by-two” (male and female), but there were MANY more than just two of each! MANY! Genesis 7:1-5 There… that is a little more of what I am saying… what I am hoping to help you ‘see’. Too many of the ‘things of this world’ have influenced the songs we sing, the poems we adore, even the phrases we pass along to our young ones. But, they are half-truths many times, and we just quietly ‘like’ them… or ‘retweet’ them, and even just let them pass on by without raising a hand in disapproval, usually for two reasons; 1) ignorant and don’t know any better, and 2) too afraid (and lacking knowledge) to ‘buck the system’, as it were. In both cases, do something about it! Sure, the first one takes time (need to read, learn, adsorb, and discuss with others), but that second one is the one that usually stops us… just afraid… ill equipped… cautious. The Bible tells us to ‘prepare’, but not to be worried ‘what to say’, because the Holy Spirit will give you the words when it is time. I mean… it ‘was’ the Holy Spirit in your life that riled your attention… why wouldn’t it also be the Holy Spirit that would provide the words… provide that support. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: Luke 12:11 The core point is… do more than just agree with things passing through your life. Do more than just ‘keep the peace’… do more than just ‘like’, ‘retweet’ and ‘post a link’. These things make it ‘seem’ like you are in the know… seem like you are connected… seem like you are on top of things. But, add some ‘why this matters to me’ commentary… add some “and the Lord showed me this” dialog… add some of His Spirit to the things you say and do. Change your regurgitationalistic ways to original thoughts! How? I like to do three things when I see something I feel I need to ‘pass along’; Why – why this caught my attention (link, photo, phrase, article, etc) What – what it means to me, how I ‘feel’ about it How – how you can be impacted by it too (not simply stating, “this will change your life”) Now… go on… Practice Original Thought! …also, ‘like’ this page! Kidding… just kidding!

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