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Xio-LaneMter Farmi'ng.Saturdty, February 21. 1998
Um opmoN VI
FFA A Vital Part
Of Agriculture
This is FFA week (February 21-28). FFA enables students to
achieve success through educational endeavors, community ser
vice and goal setting* One of the major positive aspects of an FFA
education is the hands-on experience given students. FFA mem
bers, working through local agricultural education programs, are
building career skills, developing leadership initiative, and gain
ing confidence to succeed in the future.
“Students realize the importance agricultural education prog
rams can play in building the skills they need to succeed in the
future,” says Dr. Larry D. Case, national FFA advisor and coordi
nator of agricultural and rural education, U.S. Department of
Education. “Our members are from very diverse backgrounds,
yet they all realize FFA provides a strong foundation of know
ledge and skills essential for success in life.”
This year the national theme is “Building the Future.” Right
now, there is a move in Pennsylvania to begin planning the future
of ag education. Certainly with the changing agricultural scene,
ag education must move ahead with the times. We believe as FFA
builds on the past and moves into the future with good intention to
make ag education relevant in the next century, the FFA program
will always be a necessary part of young people’s education.
This FFA week again gives us an opportunity to congratulate
all the FFA students and teachers who make the FFA program
such a vital part of agriculture and agribusiness.
Siiliirda\. I t'Wrtiai x 21
Beaver/Lawrence Counties Hols
tein Association annual meet
ing, Bingo’s Restaurant, New
Castle, 7:15 p.m.
No-Till Seminar. Dauphin County
Ag Center, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Sixth Annual Delmarva Pork For
um, UMES, Princess Anne,
Md.
Wyoming County Sheep and Wool
Producers Annual Lambing
School, PDA Building, Tunk
hannock, 9:30 a.m.-noon.
Beekeeping Seminars, Beaver Co.
Agricultural and Environmen
tal Education Center, Beaver.
PA, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Also Feb. 28,
Lester Firth Learning Center, 9
a.m.-3 p.m.
Mid-Winter Lambing School,
Dept of Ag Building, Rte. 92
South. Tunkhannock, 9:30
ajn.-Noon.
Sheep Housing and Facilities
Open House, Robert & Nancy
Lced farm, Myers town, 12-4
Grazing Short Course, Pr\pce
George’s County, Extension
Office, Clinton, Mondays
through March 23.
Elk/Cameron Crops Day, St
Mary’s Country Club, St.
Mary’s. 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Pesdticide Update Meeting, Ven
ango County Extension Office,
Franklin, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Lambing Time and Sheep Man
' ville Pie-
March 3. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Erosion and Sedimentation Con
trol Workshop, Holiday Inn,
❖ Farm Calendar*
Bethlehem, through Feb. 25.
Franklin County Beekeepers
- Association meeting, Franklin
Couunty Extension Office,
7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
Winter Vegetable Meeting,
Schuylkill Ag Center, Pottsvil
le, 9 a.m.-3:30 pjn.
Beef Producers Meeting. Augusta
House Restaurant, S unbury, 7
p.m.-9 p.m.
Pesticide Update, Keystone High
School, Knox, PA, 7:30
pjn.-9:30 p.m.
Dairy Steer 4-H Projects, Cecil
County Extension Office,
beef Prodeucer’s Winter Meet
ing, Chester County Coopera-
tive Extension, Government
Services Cento'.
Herb Workshop, Cooking and
Medicating, Penn State
Cooperative Extension, Smed
ley Park, 1-3 p.m. and 7-9 p.m.
Tri-State Conservation Tillage
Conference, Radisson Hotel,
West Middlesex. 8:30
a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Estate Planning, Best Western,
Carlisle, 7 p.m.-lO p.m.
Pesticide Test, Extension Office,
Four Points Sheraton, Gteens
burg, through Feb. 27.
Family Heritage Restaurant, Veg
etable Growers’ Meeting,
Franconia.
Lebanon County Dairy Day.
Myers town Church of the Bre
thren. 9:30 ajn.-3 p.m.
Organic Day and Crops Work
shop. Carriage Corners
Restaurant, Mifflinburg, 9
ajn.-3 p.m.
Landscape/Garden Center, Sha
dowbrook Resort, Wyoming
County, 9 ajn.-9:30 p.m.
Industry Only Dairy Consultant
To Manage Alfalfa
Stands
Persistence is important to
alfalfa growers. The longer a field
is productive, the less it costs to
grow alfalfa, according to Robert
Anderson, Lancaster County
Extension Agronomy Agent.
Many things affect the longevity
of a stand including variety,
weather conditions, soil fertility,
harvest management and pests.
Some variables affecting the
alfalfa plant, the farmer cannot
control.
However, to help stands last as
long as possible, farmers must
control those variables which
affect the stand within in their
control. These include controlling
weed and insect pests .selecting
the right varieties, maintaining
proper fertility and cutting at the
correct harvest intervals. The Penn
State Agronomy Guide gives
recommendations on how to
manage these variables. The
Agronomy Guide is available at
your county Penn State
Cooperative Extension office.
To Look At Feeds
Glenn Shirk, Lancaster
County Extension Dairy Agent,
reminds us that dairy farmers are
in the feed conversion business.
Their goal is to add value to home
grown and purchased feed by
feeding it to cattle and converting
it to milk. To accomplish this
successfully, they need to have the
right kind and quality of feeds and
feeds that are digestible and
affordable. Farmers need
genetically superior cattle that are
healthy and capable of digesting
large quantities of feed and
absorbing nutrients efficiently.
These are the pieces to the
puzzle of efficient milk
production. Some tests that help
farmers monitor how well rations
are balanced and feed nutrients are
being utilized are milk urea
nitrogen (MUN), milk fat and
milk protein tests
To Attend Winter
Meetings
A lot of new technology is
Hotel of Sharon, West Mid-
dlesex, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Sweet Com School, Berks County
Ag Center, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
NY Farm Show. NYS Fair
grounds, Syracuse, NY,
through Feb. 28.
Annual Meeting of the Pa. Hols
tein Assocation, Four Points
Sheraton, Greensburg, 8:30
a.m.
York Garden and Flower Show,
York Fairgrounds.
Cecil County Agricultural Update
(Agronomy and Dairy Days),
(Turn to Pag* A 39)
being introduced to agriculture.
These include precision
agriculture, genetic engineering,
bioengineering, computerization
of equipment and new processing
techniques. These technologies
have introduced the development
of Bt and brown midrib com
hybrids and new integrated pest
management strategies. Kernel and
stalk processing techniques like
rolling affect digestibility and the
manor in which rations have to be
reformulated to utilize these feeds
and technology efficiently.
This makes the winter meeting
PERVERTING
GOD'S GRACE
February 22. 1998
Background Scripture:
Jude 3-4, 17-25
Devotional Reading:
Isaiah 55:6-13
A few months ago. my wife,
Valere, and I led a tour to Tuilcey,
following in the footsteps of the
Apostles Paul and John. In pre
paration, I did some research on
the history of the Byzantine
Empire and its capital. Con
stantinople, today’s Istanbul. For
more than 1,000 years Constanti
nople was the capital not only of
the empire, but also Eastern
Orthodox Christianity. It was here
that Christianity first became a
legal religion. One of the greatest
Christian churches, Hagia Sophia,
also known as St Sophia, was
built as the mother church for
Orthodox Christianity.
1 was shocked to find that when
Constantinople first fell to a for
eign army in 1202, it was not to
the Islamics, as I had assumed, but
an army of Christian Crusaders.
The Fourth Crusade was organ
ized with the goal of recapturing
the Holy Land and invading
Egypt, but once launched, the
Crusaders from Western Europe
decided that Christian Constanti
nople was a far mote lucrative
prize which, unfortunately, is
what the crusades were mostly
about
Worst of all, I discovered that
their sack of Constantinople is vir
tually without parallel. The Cru
saders stormed into St Sophia,
looting, pillaging and seriously
damaging it Seizing the sacred
vessels, they pried the valuable
stones from them and used the
vessels in their drunken orgy.
They even forced a prostitute to
dance lewdly before the altar.
They so weakened the city that
two centuries later it was unable to
withstand the forces erf the Islamic
Ottoman Empire. History records
that the Ottomans were much less
rapacious than the Christian ar
mies of Crusaders.
BELYING OUR FAITH
So, what does all of that have to
do with the Epistle of Jude and the
perversion of God’s grace? An
swer. it is simply a historic illus
tration that professing Christians
have often grossly perverted the
grace of God, giving themselves
over to a licentiousness which be
lied their Christian profession. It
can lead us to examine ourselves
and our society to determine how
the grace of God might still be
perverted by people who claim to
follow Christ
Jude, the writer of this oft-for-
season very important. Come and
learn about these new
technologies and begin thinking
which ones you need to adapt to
your farming operations. On top
of these technologies, farmers also
need to learn about the changing
economic and business
environment they are working in.
Do not forget you have 6 weeks
to obtain your pesticide credits if
your license expires on March 31,
1998.
Feather Prof, 's Footnote:
"Ability may get you to the top,
but it takes character to keep you
there."
gotten New Testament letter, pen
ned to warn Christians against
“false teachers” whose blatant im
morality was leading many astray
and corrupting some churches. In
their midst, he is saying there are
“ungodly persons who pervert the
grace of our God into licentious
ness and deny our only Master and
Lord, Jesus Christ (v. 4b).
What did he mean by “pervert
the grace of our God?” We do not
know exactly who there “ungodly
persons” were. We do know that
during this period there were some
who believed that Jesus was not
really human, but just appeared to
be. If Jesus was not really human,
it was assumed that he had little to
do with the earthly lives that we
lead. Therefore, you could believe
in Christ but still live as if he has
little or no significance for the
way that we live on earth. So these
people could claim Christ for their
spirits without involving him in
their minds and bodies.
DEPRAVED UVES
They thus claimed allegiance to
Christ, but lived depraved lives in
sexual, drunken and violent de
bauchery a virtual rejection of
the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We do not know if the “ungodly
persons” consciously and vocally
denied Christ, but, even if not, the
lives they led denied the true
meaning of our Lord.
I suspect that the “ungodly per
sons” did not recognize them
selves in Jude’s letter. They prob
ably considered themselves “good
Christians,” strong supporters of
the church and perfectly in step
with the morals of the times
just as the Crusaders would cen
turies later. Despite the depreda
tions they committed, they were
greatly admired by Western socie
ty and honored by the churches.
These people whose lives denied
what they professed concerning
Christ were more harmful to the
gospel than those who openly and
publicly denied Christ.
The late theologian Emil Brun
ner, has written: The scandal of
Christianity exists as a scandal
only so long as we are full of our
selves. To believe in the cross of
Christ is no scandal for those who
have seen how perverted is their
own wisdom.. .It is the very cor
rective for this perversion of our
sight, it makes us look straight
again, who by sin have become
cross-eyed. Nothing is moe insidi
ous, nothing perverts more the
grace of God than when talking
Christianity becomes a substitute
for living it.
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
I E. Main St
Ephrata, PA 17522
-by-
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Stelnman Enterprise
Robert 0. Campbell General Manager
Everett R. Newawanger Managing Editor
Copyright 199* by Lancuur Fannin*