A Conversation about High Plains Drifter

This is an exchange of comments between Belinda Thorne, formerly from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and Tim Shey, author of High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America.  These comments were taken from Belinda's post "Remember Lot's Wife" on her blog Grace and Truth:

September/October 2020

Belinda:  Tim, why is your book called High Plains Drifter?

Tim:  Now THAT is a very good question. I think that in all of my years of hitchhiking around the United States and in all of the years that High Plains Drifter has been available via manuscript, book, Internet Archive or blog, no one has ever asked that question.

I named my book High Plains Drifter after Clint Eastwood’s film High Plains Drifter (1973). I don’t know how many times I have seen that film. I absolutely identify with the main character played by Eastwood (the Stranger) who rides into town and kills some bad guys and then burns the town to the ground.

The Stranger in the film at one time was the town marshal: he was whipped to death by some bad guys who were paid by the owners of the local mining operation. To me, it reminds me of the death of Jesus Christ. There is a scene in the film where the townspeople are having a meeting at the local church and you see this Bible verse on the bulletin board: Isaiah 53: 3-4. The town marshal was rejected by the townspeople and then killed; I have been rejected by family, friends and church people because of my testimony, so I have been alone most of my life (that’s why I identify with the Stranger in the film).

I have a film review on my High Plains Drifter blog that you might like to read: “Clint Eastwood’s film High Plains Drifter (1973)”.

[Here I posted some links pertaining to my book High Plains Drifter.]

I hope these links aren’t overkill to your question, but as far as I can remember, no one has ever asked why I titled my book High Plains Drifter, so I am pleasantly surprised and a little bit flattered.

Belinda:  No, not overkill at all, thank you for answering my question.

Two things have stood out to me. One where you said in your short story that you like wide open spaces. And two, hitchhiking you are on the fringes of society.

I’ll tell you why I asked you that question. Last night I was praying. Praying about what to do. It’s so hard here now. Can you imagine, you who like open spaces, that we are in home prison now for 23 hours a day. Allowed out for one hour of exercise or one of us is allowed to go get essentials. And our Premier has extended this lockdown for an indefinite period till we get to less than 5 cases. I am now convinced he is a madman, full of demons.

Of course I am not sticking to these ridiculous rules. I’m doing what God leads me to. My husband and I have been running an underground church in our home for months, because church is now banned. We have mainly men come, those who’ve just left rehab and prison and we sing and praise and read the Word. They park up the road and walk to our house in the dark and sneak in one by one. It’s the only thing that’s kept me going during this dark time.

So I’m praying last night and the Lord takes me to a cliff top and we look down together over a dusty plain where there is dirty, tattooed, fighting people. He has shown me this before. A few weeks ago He showed me it and said “this is the land I am giving you”.

But last night He just showed me it again and I thought how we were on a high plain looking out over.
Then your book title from nowhere came into my head “High Plains Drifter”.
And I felt to ask you why.

The fringes of society, the outcasts who God has called us to. It has always been them. We can never fit in a church. We fit with the homeless and mentally ill and drug addicts. No one else I know is doing anything at the moment. All the churches are quiet and obediently closed and it makes me sick and angry.

I love your Shiloh poem, wow. The line about Cain bludgeoning Abel to death….

Anyway I am going to buy your book, it’s on Amazon yes?

Thank you for reading this, I don’t know what’s happening to me at the moment, it’s all very strange but I know my Lord and I trust Him.

Bless you Tim

Tim:  I think it is VERY interesting that you asked about the title of my book on a post that has the title “Remember Lot’s Wife”. If you watch Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter, at the end of the film, the Stranger burns the town of Lago to the ground (God’s Wrath). The Scripture “remember Lot’s wife” is alluding to the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah by fire and brimstone (God’s Wrath). So maybe eventually the Lord will lead you out of Melbourne into the wide open spaces (the Outback?) before God’s Wrath hits Melbourne?  You are led by the Holy Ghost; the Lord will reveal to you what you need to do.

About my book on Amazon. I think there is one copy left, but Amazon is charging an exorbitant price for it (probably because it is the last copy). You can read High Plains Drifter for free on my blog.

Yes, I am definitely on the fringes of society. The Lord led me out of the church back in 1991. The Lord has had me alone for most of my life. The Lord’s thoughts are higher than my thoughts. I know that the Lord has you and your family in the palm of His hand (I am thinking of Psalm 91).

Belinda:  You make a very good connection there . . .I had not connected that! I am going to watch that Clint Eastwood movie.

Yes I believe the Lord is leading us out of Melbourne. I am praying for His specific guidance as to where, but we are quite sure we are going.

Thank you for your link to your book. I look forward to reading it.

I have a scripture for you Tim:

Micah 4:6-8 ["In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;  And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.  And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem."]

Jesus was an outcast. If we follow Him we also will be. You have to be an outcast to intercede for the outcasts.
You have blessed me greatly and I pray God will bless you greatly in return.

[A few weeks later . . .]

Belinda:  Hi Tim. I am reading your book. I’ve just finished chapter 7. I love this chapter.

I felt to share with you this:

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Tim:  I am glad that you liked that chapter. I remember that time back in 1998 when I was in San Luis Obispo, California. I stayed in a motel one night and then I slept outside on the side of this hill the next night. I was in this Burger King having a meal and for some reason I began to think of northern New Mexico (I worked on an apple farm in New Mexico back in 1986). Then all of a sudden the Holy Ghost fell on me very heavy, so I knew that the Lord wanted me to go to New Mexico.

So I was hitchhiking in New Mexico and that guy named Israel gave me a ride. Then the next day, that pastor preached about Jacob wrestling with the angel and then the angel named him Israel. It was quite a trip. When you are led by the Holy Ghost, your life is never boring, let me tell you.

When you are led by the Holy Ghost, your life looks a bit crazy. I thought at times that all of that hitchhiking was crazy. But usually some God-thing or something profound would happen virtually every day, so I knew that the Lord was in the hitchhiking. I knew that the Lord protected me and provided for me in my travels.

So why did the Lord have me hitchhike all those years? I talked to a lot of people about my Christian faith. Intercession was a big part. I was taking up my cross and following the Lord which helped to break curses off of my life and I was delivered of many demons (I am still being delivered of demons). The devil hates a life that is dead to self. Also, hitchhiking was simply obedience to the Lord: when we enter the Kingdom of Heaven, our life is obedience unto the Lord: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”.

Thank you for the Scripture above (John 3:8).

Belinda:  Amen the devil does hate a life that is dead to self. But the Lord loves it, because He can use that one. And that one has power to prevail with Him.

[Twelve days later . . .]

Belinda:  Hi Tim, I have just finished reading chapter 9 of your book. It struck me that God was training you to be led by the Spirit. That your life was /is a literal representation (like Ezekiel's was) of how God wants to lead us and how we are to respond. We think to go east but we don’t get a ride so we go west and immediately God sends a ride. The children of Israel had to get their feet wet before the Jordan River parted.

You will hear a voice behind you say this is the way, walk ye in it.
To be so trained by the Spirit, to be sensitive to Him, this is it. This is everything. Just some thoughts that have struck me reading your book.
Blessings.

Tim:  Amen. I was definitely led by the Holy Ghost as I hitchhiked the United States.

Hitchhiking, also, was fasting and prayer. A lot of people think of fasting as fasting from food. Fasting can also mean fasting from a former lifestyle: I used to work at a lumber yard back in Iowa before I started to hitchhike. I would get odd jobs here and there on the road, but most of the time, I really had to put my trust in the Lord for Him to provide for me, protect me and find a place for me to sleep. Working at the lumber yard or working for that construction company was a vacation compared to hitchhiking.

Remember when Jesus said that these (demons) can only come out through fasting and prayer?(Mark 9:29)  So many curses were broken off of me while I was hitchhiking around the country; I was delivered of so many demons while hitchhiking. Why? Hitchhiking was fasting and prayer and hitchhiking was taking up my cross and following the Lord. The cross is death to self-will. Demons hate a selfless body; demons love a selfish, sinful body.

In hitchhiking, I met many people on the road and talked to many people about my faith in Jesus Christ. My hitchhiking also reminded me of when the Lord told Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot in Egypt as a witness against them (Isaiah 20:3). Even if I was not able to talk to people on the road, my hitchhiking was a powerful witness of my obedience to the Lord. Obedience is an end in itself. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.

Thank you for reading my book. I greatly appreciate your response.

Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Sent Ones

What God is trying to tell us

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter

The Representation of Justice in High Plains Drifter

Book Review: The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

This is an email I received today from someone who gave me a ride a couple of times in Montana:

Hi Tim,

I picked up a copy of The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & Other Hitchhiking Stories at the Bitterroot Library [Hamilton, Montana] and just finished reading it. I feel like I know you quite well now, just from this account of what a few years on the road looked like for you.

One of my favorite chapters was "A Christmas Story or Junked Cars Can Be Beautiful". I actually read that just a few days before Christmas and it gave me a feeling that the Christmas story lives on in forms less obvious. In general, I really liked the meaning that you gave to roads, cars, and the people that drive them. As a car enthusiast myself, I have always loved wrenching and driving. I think I mentioned to you one of the times I picked you up that a few friends and I race an old BMW that we work on together. Likewise, searching for secluded, twisting backroads to really let our cars stretch their legs on and hug some corners has always been a special pastime with that same group of friends. Roads, cars, and the people that drive them have been important in my life, too; it was striking to see the completely different meaning that these things have in your life.

Also, in reading your book, I’ve given a lot of thought as to where God is trying to lead me. I believe that one can be led by the Spirit, even if not physically moving in a nomadic sense. I’ve had a lot of questions in my mind regarding the next step in my life - medical school. I applied to both M.D. and D.O. programs, but am struggling with a myriad of issues concerning which degree I should pursue. It wasn’t until I was nearly done with your book that I started to ask where God wants me to be. I am seeking His counsel.

--Alek Wood

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter
Stobe the Hobo

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

Death of a Nation

I just finished reading DEATH OF A NATION:  Plantation Politics and the Making of the Democratic Party by Dinesh D'Souza.  It is an excellent read.  I hope many people--especially Christian Patriots--read this book.

Excerpt from page 222:

"So let's draw out the analogy between the old slave plantation and the new urban plantation.  In both cases we have a group that doesn't work, refuses to work, is sexually dissolute and obsessed with luxurious display, status and respect, and gets into duels--sometimes lethal duels--over petty objects like a pair of sneakers or insults.  Just to be clear, I am not making a predictable comparison between the inhabitants of the urban plantation and the slaves.  Rather, I am making one between the inhabitants of the urban plantation and the slave-owners.

"The Democratic planter class, after all, was made up of people who did nothing, whiling away their time in duels, sexual chicanery, card games, cockfights and luxurious displays.  And they could get by with doing nothing because they relied on the slaves to do all the work.  While their ideology proclaimed the slaves to be dependent on them, they were in fact dependent on the slaves.  On the urban plantation, too, inhabitants do little or no productive work.  And most of them can manage without employment because in one way or another they are dependent on the federal government.

"Another similarity between the old Democratic plantation and the new is that in both of them the family structure is in complete disarray.  On the Democratic slave plantation, the slave-master was typically married, but this did not stop him from carrying on with the female slaves.  As for the slaves, they might cohabit, but they could not legally marry, and their offspring were the property not of the parents but of the master.  On the Democratic urban plantation, marriage, though legal, is virtually unheard of, and illegitimacy rates of 75 to 90 percent are common."

Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
The Death of President Lyndon Johnson
President Trump Fighting for Middle America
Why Obama Wants to Destroy America
Dinesh D'Souza at the University of Wisconsin
Black Woman Defends Trump and says Democrats are the Real Racists

Writings from the Road

Writings from the Road by Tim Shey. 132 pages. Non-fiction. Published in 2016. 

A Red-Letter Day
Writings from the Road

Personality

This is from the blog Macy Halford:

This is my inaugural blog post for An Utmost a Day, and oh, boy, are we beginning with a bang.

When I was working on my book about Utmost, December 12th was one of the entries that gave me the most food for thought (read: trouble). When Oswald Chambers uses the word “personality,” he’s not just talking about a person’s unique character (i.e. he’s not using it the way we might today). He’s joining one of the fiercest philosophical and cultural debates of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

Consider this quote by the Scottish Evangelical P. T. Forsyth, one of Oswald’s favorite thinkers:

Christ is certainly no less concerned than Nietzsche that the personality should receive the fullest development of which it is capable, and be more and more of a power. The difference between them lies in the moral method by which the personality is put into possession of itself and its resources--in the one case by asserting itself, in the other by losing it.

What’s Nietzsche doing here? The German philosopher surfaces in Oswald’s sermons, too, a testament to his far-reaching influence in the era (it’s actually difficult to overstate Nietzsche’s importance in Western Europe in the years leading up to the First World War).

The strand of his thinking that Oswald and Forsyth—along with numerous other Christian thinkers in this era—addressed most often did indeed have to do with “person”-ality: that is, with what a person was and with how a person could, and should, go about the task of living.

Nietzsche put forth the idea of the Übermensch—we call it the Superman. The Superman was an ideal: a fully independent individual, a self-actualizing “will-power,” who created his own values, rather than deriving them from a system, a religion, or history. This notion—particularly the power it promised—was extremely appealing to citizens of the late nineteenth century, who were grappling with the massive changes brought on by modernity. Many felt hemmed in on all sides—by the industrial forces that had ripped them from their ancestral homes, sending them en masse into cities and factories; by the oddly distant political system that had replaced the old one, breaking the ancient bonds of kin and clan; by the economic system, capitalism, which seemed to make money the entire measure of the man. People—and particularly men—began to describe themselves as “cogs in a machine.” Talk of a “crisis of masculinity” was rampant.

It might seem odd today, but there was actually a good deal of kinship between Nietzsche’s way of thinking and that of Evangelicals like Oswald and Forsyth. The idea of breaking through false systems—governmental, religious, or economic—to set the individual free was key to both. And both latched on to the same idea—”personality”—to make the point. A human “person” was not a cog in a machine or a passive subject; he was not merely a member of a crowd; he did not exist in the mass. He was a unique entity, the basic building block of society, and all of creation existed within him. He was sacrosanct.

Of course, Christian Evangelicals diverged from Nietzsche on crucial points: Nietzsche hated Christianity, calling it a religion for weaklings. Oswald worked hard to overturn this myth. He frequently made the point that both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were “personalities,” full of power and agency, and unable to be contained or controlled by systems, namely theological ones. In fact, his entire definition of Christianity could be summed up as: two personalities in personal, unmediated, relationship to one another, i.e. Christ with the Christian. Both he and Forsyth argued that, since Christ is the only true power, only Christians in relationship with Christ could be truly powerful.

There is much more to say on this subject (I didn’t even mention the main point of the December 12th reading, which is distinguishing between individuality and personality), but as it will come up again in Utmost, I’ll end today’s post by addressing Oswald’s statement that a person can only fully possess his own personality by “merging” with another’s. It’s similar to what Forsyth says above—that a person has to “lose” his personality in order to gain it. Both are responses to what was (and is) a common criticism of Evangelicalism: that in reducing Christianity to a personal relationship with Christ it encouraged isolation, broke communities, and allowed questionable theologies to flourish.

For Oswald and Forsyth, the personal relationship with Christ was all about others. It was all about acquiring Christ’s personality, which was humble, oriented toward serving others, and moved, as and when God commanded, between moments of private devotion and public activity.

—Macy

The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless

The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless

Chris McCandless Revisited
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
A Critical Review of Into the Wild
A Conversation with a Vietnam Veteran

Book Review: High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America 

by Tim Shey 

This review is by M. Canniff (Valora Raziel):

A Hitchhiker Following God

“I first heard of Tim Shey through his web site, and then ordered his book. (I have yet to ever meet him.) I was curious about what life on the road must be like for a hitchhiker following God. His path that he details in this book, blew all my previous misconceptions about hitchhikers clear out of the water! He receives guidance from the Holy Spirit, through the spiritual gift of knowledge, in what I see as a unique twist to the usual. Some have claimed to hear the voice of God speaking to them and directing them into His Ways, but in Tim’s experience, He feels the anointing of the Lord upon him, giving him great peace and joy, thereby letting him know, that he is indeed upon the right path. And what a path it is! Tim shares how the Holy Spirit leads him into intersecting paths of those people that God wants him to meet. Sometimes it’s just a simple conversation with another believer, that leads them into a stronger faith in Christ, and other times it is to actually, physically, lend a helping hand to those who (at that moment,) are in desperate need. It shows how the Lord can be trusted to work out even the smallest details in ones life. It also shows how one can live for Christ without all the encumbrances that come with having and getting material stuff. My only disappointment with the book was it’s lack of a good solid ending. (I am a ‘happily-ever-after’ and an ‘all-loose-ends-tied-up’ kind of reader.) However, I also realize that it simply isn’t possible for him to have one yet, as he is still out there, on the road, doing the Will of God. So, in conclusion, if you’ve ever wondered what it must be like, for a man of God to live the life of a hitchhiker, then this is the book for you. It will open your eyes to a world that few of us have ever experienced…”


Clint Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter (1973)
Two Pleasant Surprises:  High Plains Drifter Revisited
High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories
Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch

A Letter from Israel
Writings from the Road
Book Review:  The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

Remember Lot's Wife

High Plains Drifter (short story)

A Conversation about High Plains Drifter

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories (excerpts)

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

By Tim Shey 

Published January 2012
PublishAmerica
Baltimore 

Here are some excerpts from The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories:

Page 8:  "The cop dropped me off in the middle of somewhere. It was ten o'clock at night, it was hot and humid and I forgot to fill up my water bottle back in Central City. I was not a happy camper. I thanked the officer for the ride and he turned around and drove west into the Nebraska night.

When the cop dropped me off, the last thing he said to me was, "Remember:  pray without ceasing."

"The next town was six miles away. So I walked past the corn fields and the hay fields of eastern Nebraska. I was thirsty. The noise of diesel engines roaring away pumping water into irrigation circles could be heard as I walked back east.

"Eventually, I made it to the small town of Duncan. I found a water hydrant and drank a ton of water. I then found a pickup parked next to the railroad tracks. I climbed into the cab of the pickup and slept there that night.

"The next morning, I walked to the shoulder of U.S. 30 and began thumbing for a ride to Columbus. Within half an hour, some guy walked up to the pickup that I had slept in the night before and drove off in it. Sometimes it is a good idea to get up early in the morning.

"I got a ride to Columbus. This guy took me to the bus station. I met a lady there that helped me pay for a bus ticket to Des Moines. I got on the bus and it went through Omaha. I got off in Adel, Iowa that evening. Adel is just west of Des Moines on U.S. 6.

"I phoned a friend in Ames. He picked me up in Adel and drove me back to Ames. He thought that it was funny that I hitchhiked to Nebraska and hopped a freight train. He thought it was really funny that a cop told me to get off the train. I didn't think it was so funny."

_____ 

Page 22:  "My backpack has shown a lot of wear and tear over the years. There are rips in it; it is somewhat dirty. There are places where I sewed it up with monofilament fishing line and there is a piece of duct tape on the bottom of the pack. Without duct tape, we would be a people no more.

"I believe the weight of my backpack averages around thirty-five pounds, so I get some good exercise every day when I have to walk several miles on the highway. The guy who gave me the backpack told me that he spent $200.00 for it back in 1979. It is still hanging in there pretty tough. It is an interior frame backpack. I don't know the brand name.

"It has been through rain, snow, dirt, mud, sand (e.g. I slept on the beach at Cambria, California), crude oil (in the back of a pickup in New Mexico), hundred-degree heat, and twenty-below-zero cold. I use it as a pillow when I sleep outside. I use it as body armor when somebody drives by and sprays me with submachine gun bullets (just joking). My body armor is a wall of fire that surrounds me--the Holy Ghost Fire.

"My backpack and I have hitchhiked countless thousands upon thousands of miles throughout the United States. Somebody once offered to buy me a new backpack two or three years ago. I graciously declined their offer. I'm going to keep this backpack as long as I can. You see, it never argues with me, it never disagrees with me, never talks back. It is very low maintenance. When I get tired of carrying it, I stop, take off my backpack and sit on it on the side of the road and rest for a while.

"When I die, it doesn't look like I will be able to take it to heaven with me--I guess this is something that I will just have to accept."

_____

Page 35:  "This past week I was hitchhiking in Montana and I ended up in Ennis. I went to the library and typed up some stuff on my Digihitch blog and then I walked to the Exxon gas station.

"I was inside the convenience store buying something to eat, when this older man walked up to me and asked, 'Are you the traveler? Is that your backpack out front?'

"I said, 'Yeah.'

"His name was Arthur and he said that he had done some hitchhiking in his younger days. He was originally from San Diego and did a lot of surfing at one time. Arthur used to hitchhike with a guitar. He asked me if I needed a place to stay for a while. He told me he needed some work done on his ranch and that he had a bad back; he had been in a real serious car crash years ago.

"So I told him that that would be great and that I would like to work for him. I grabbed my backpack and we drove around six miles to his ranch. He had a housemate named Hal who had lived there for five years; Hal was married and divorced and pretty much retired. Arthur used to be a miner years ago.

"I fed the horses hay and grain while I was there. Arthur and I hauled some garbage to the local dump and we did a lot of cleaning up of some trash in the house and rearranging some boxes for storage.

"I ended up staying two nights and then hit the road. I hitchhiked south and made it to Driggs, Idaho where I met up with a friend. I stayed at he and his wife's place in Drummond last night.

"Yesterday, I checked my email and Arthur sent me a very kind and thoughtful note; here it is below:

"'Hello Saw man we are glad in the lord and holy power for leading you to us. We are very much lovers of good men who follow the path in life that few dare to seek, I find in you the good warm energy that god has bestowed upon you, follow your path no one else can, and remember us in your prayers we shall forever be in your kindness and have no regrets for the time you and we shared with you. Be always welcome in our tee pee. We enjoyed you and the god & man energy to shared with us. Have a safe and full filled life and some day return to us that we may share what god has given us to share with his chosen few. you are special in our hearts and minds so be good to yourself and we will not judge you but find in you faith to carry on and struggle with our human condition and remain thankfull to god first and the life of mammon second.

"'your friends Arthur And Harold.
ps glad you liked my cooking. pax goldbear'" 

_____ 

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories
By Tim Shey
Paperback:  178 Pages
ISBN-10: 1462661718

ISBN-13: 978-1462661718

Language: English 

Hobo Shoestring--King of the Rails
Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch
The Road
Stobe the Hobo

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train (short story)

Book Review:  The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

The Messenger of the Cross by Watchman Nee

[15 December 2009]

John 12: 32: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."

I will be staying here with a friend in Belgrade, Montana for a couple of nights. This morning I noticed a book by Watchman Nee, The Messenger of the Cross. I read Chapter One before I came to the library. Here are some good quotes:

Page 7: "Paul's message is the cross, and he himself is a crucified person. In the preaching of the cross, he adopts the way of the cross. A crucified person preaches the message of the cross in the spirit of the cross. How often what we preach is indeed the cross; but our attitude, our words and our feelings do not seem to bear witness to what we preach. Much preaching of the cross is not done in the spirit of the cross! Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers that he 'came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom when proclaiming' to them 'the testimony of God.' The testimony of God here refers to the word of the cross. Paul did not use lofty words of wisdom in proclaiming the cross but came in the spirit of the cross: 'My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.' Such is truly the spirit of the cross.

"The cross is the wisdom of God, though to unbelieving men it is foolishness. When we proclaim the 'foolish' message, we must assume the 'foolish' way, adopt the 'foolish' attitude, and use the 'foolish' words. The victory of Paul lies in the fact that he is indeed a crucified person. He can therefore proclaim the cross with the attitude as well as the spirit of the cross. He who has not experienced crucifixion will not be filled with the spirit of the cross; and consequently he is not fit to proclaim the message of the cross."

Page 8: "The word of the cross which we so often proclaim is actually not ours but is borrowed--it is gleaned from books or from searching the Scriptures with our brain power. People with clever minds and those who are used to preaching are particularly prone to such danger. I am afraid that all their research, study, reading, and hearing talks on the mystery of the cross in its various aspects is for other people and not first for themselves. Consistently thinking of other people and neglecting our own lives will eventually result in spiritual famine!"

Page 11: "We cannot give what we do not have. If all we have is thought, we can only give thought. If in our life we do not have the experience of co-death with Christ to overcome sin and self nor the experience of taking up the cross to follow the Lord and suffer with Him, and if our knowledge of the word of the cross is obtained through people's pens and mouths but we cannot impart life; all we can do is instill the idea of the life of the cross in people's minds. Only when we ourselves are transformed by the cross and have received its spirit as well as its life are we able to impart the cross to other people."

Page 12: "Man's thought, word, eloquence and argument can only stir up the human soul, since these reach to the soulical part of man. They merely excite man's emotion, mind and will. Life, however, may reach man's spirit; and all the works of the Holy Spirit are done in our spirit--that is, in our inward man (see Rom. 8.16; Eph .3.16). As we in our spiritual experience let flow our life in the spirit, the Holy Spirit will send forth His life to the spirits of others and cause them to receive either regenerated life or the life more abundant."

Page 13: "We become a living teaching and a living word; and what we preach is no longer simply an idea which we know but is our real life. This is the meaning of being 'doers of the word' according to the Biblical sense."

Page 15: "For if we really are full of the Spirit due to the deeper work of the cross in us, we will spontaneously diffuse life in our conversation and our talk--whether private or public--so as to enrich those with whom we have contact. This does not require any self-effort or self-fabrication, but should be something most natural. And this thus fulfills what the Lord Jesus declares in John 7: 38: 'He that believeth on me . . . from within him shall flow rivers of living water.'"

An American Pilgrim: Some Reflections on High Plains Drifter

In the past few weeks, I have been thinking about my book High Plains Drifter: A Hitchhiking Journey Across America. I know that it was God’s will for me to write this book. It was God’s will that High Plains Drifter was published, even though it was published by a self publishing company. It will be interesting to see how the Lord uses this book and how it will influence the people who have read it.

At one time in my life, reading the classics in literature was a passion. High Plains Drifter is not literary, so I have wondered why the Lord wanted it published. But I shouldn’t be judging my book through a literary lens. The New York Times Book Review may not think highly of my book, but the Lord may think it an inspiring, worthwhile testimony. There are some literary classics that really have no value in the Judaeo-Christian world view. The reprobate mind is not the mind of Christ; worldliness is not to be found in the Kingdom of Heaven; blindness is the opposite of prophetic vision.

Then the Lord gave me this Scripture: “the Lord chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” I really believe this verse describes High Plains Drifter best. This book is not meant to entertain; it is not a how-to book on hitchhiking. It is a book to draw people onto the narrow path of obedience to the Lord. High Plains Drifter would not be considered dense writing (i.e., lots of details, much time spent working on the text). Watchman Nee’s classic The Spiritual Man and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov would be considered dense writing.

I wrote the book very fast: 200 pages in 10 days were written in longhand back in January/February of 2000. I really didn’t want to write High Plains Drifter—I wrote it in spite of myself. Back in 1999, I was on the road for probably eight months. During that time, people kept telling me that I should write a book about my hitchhiking travels. I kept telling them, no, I didn’t want to write a book. Finally, in January of 2000, I was hitchhiking in Texas and I ducked into this convenience store to get something to eat. I talked with this young lady who was working the cash register. She could see that I was hitchhiking, so she told me that she wanted to read my book someday. She was speaking words of faith; I believe the Lord was using her.

High Plains Drifter is autobiographical; it is about hitchhiking, the people I meet on the road and my Christian faith. It is a fast read (120 pages). But mostly, I believe that High Plains Drifter is not unlike the jawbone of an ass: it doesn’t look like much at first glance, but it will help destroy satanic strongholds in the long run. I know that Satan hates High Plains Drifter. A couple of nights before it was accepted for publication (August 2008), I was attacked by a demon while I was sleeping in my tent. The attack was so real and so painful that I thought my ribcage was broken. Later, in December 2008, I was attacked by a demon the week it was published. Somehow High Plains Drifter is a threat to Satan’s kingdom; it is symbolic of the intercessory work that I do for the Lord. If the Lord is in a work, it will grow stronger and become more influential over time.

Time is nothing; the timelessness of the Gospel is everything. Some people are drifters, some people read about drifters and some people don’t care for drifters. Inspiration sometimes comes from the quiet lives of wandering, broken vessels. It is the narrow road that leads to God. American highways were meant for pilgrims.

_____

Dreams from the LORD 2003-2006
7 March 2005

I have also been burning my High Plains Drifter: A Hitchhiking Journey Across America and Dreams from the Lord and Journal onto these mini-CDs (210 MB). When I am hitchhiking around the country, somebody invariably says something like: “Hey, Tim, you should write a book about your travels.” So if they have access to a computer, I can give them a copy of my book on a CD. The typescript of High Plains Drifter (160 pages) weighed about one pound, so it is nice not to carry any extra weight in my backpack.

2 August 2006

About a week ago, I hitchhiked from Jackson through Salmon, Idaho to just south of Darby, Montana where I slept in a barn. Walking out of Tetonia, Idaho, this guy picked me up--he had picked me up before in 2001 or 2002. I had given him my typescript High Plains Drifter when he first picked me up and he said he really enjoyed it. He gave it to his wife and she liked it, also. So when he dropped me off near Sugar City, I gave him a copy of my CD so he could read my other book.

Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
16 August 2007

A few nights ago, I had a dream where I saw this man sitting alone in a church pew. He told me that he didn’t like my book High Plains Drifter. After he said that, I couldn’t hear him anymore. He talked and talked, but I couldn’t hear him; it looked like he was talking to himself or talking into the air. There was no one else in the church. He seemed very agitated.

I believe I know the meaning of this dream. The man sitting in the church pew either did not like my book, High Plains Drifter, or he did not like my life of obedience to the Lord, i.e. hitchhiking all over the United States, living a life of intercessory prayer, being a prophet and living on the fringes of society (this is what High Plains Drifter represents). The man sitting in the church pew represents church people in general. Some church people don’t like my work of obeying the Lord and taking out satanic strongholds [or else they don’t understand; sometimes people fear or hate that which they don’t understand].

12 August 2008

Last night I had a dream where I was in this office. There was this bookcase and there were files and books in the bookcase. As I was leaving the office, I noticed my two books, High Plains Drifter and Dreams from the Lord, in the bookcase. I pulled Dreams from the Lord out from some files, looked at it briefly and then sandwiched it back between some files. For some reason, I believe that office had something to do with a public relations firm.

1 August 2009

Last night I had a dream where I saw President Ronald Reagan. He was playing a guitar and looked very old. It looked like he had been out of the White House for several years. President Reagan was surrounded by many people—they looked like reporters.

President Reagan saw me, smiled at me and walked over to where I was standing. We spoke for a short while.

Then this woman walked up to me; she looked like a reporter. We talked for a while. I told her that I had a book published. She said that she had heard of it and told me the title of a book. It was the wrong title. I told her my book was High Plains Drifter. I found a piece of paper, folded it in two and began writing High Plains Drifter: A Hitchhiking Journey Across America. I was writing with an old-fashioned fountain pen—the ink dripped onto the paper in a couple of places. I was almost finished writing the title of my book when the dream ended.

A Book Review for High Plains Drifter 

Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna

Pagan Christianity?
Exploring The Roots of our Church Practices

By Frank Viola and George Barna



Page 201: Four Stages of Theological Education

“Throughout church history there have been four stages of theological education. They are: episcopal, monastic, scholastic, and seminarian (pastoral).”

Scholastic

Page 204: “Contemporary theology cut its teeth on the abstraction of Greek philosophy. University academics adopted an Aristotelian model of thinking that centered on rational knowledge and logic. The dominating drive in scholastic theology was the assimilation and communication of knowledge. (For this reason, the Western mind has always been fond of creedal formulations, doctrinal statements, and other bloodless abstractions.)

“One of the most influential professors in the shaping of contemporary theology was Peter Abelard (1079-1142). Abelard is partly responsible for giving us ‘modern’ theology. His teaching set the table and prepared the menu for scholastic philosophers like Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).

“Distinguished by Abelard, the school of Paris emerged as the model for all universities to follow. Abelard applied Aristotelian logic to revealed truth, though even he understood the tension between the two. . . He also gave the word theology the meaning it has today. (Before him, this word was only used to describe pagan beliefs.)

“Taking his cue from Aristotle, Abelard mastered the pagan philosophical art of dialectic—the logical disputation of truth. He applied this art to the Scriptures. Christian theological education never recovered from Abelard’s influence. Athens is still in its bloodstream. Aristotle, Abelard, and Aquinas all believed that reason was the gateway to divine truth. So from its beginnings, Western university education involved the fusion of pagan and Christian elements.”

Seminarian

Page 205: “Seminary theology grew out of the scholastic theology that was taught in the universities. As we have seen, this theology was based on Aristotle’s philosophical system. Seminary theology was dedicated to the training of professional ministers. Its goal was to produce seminary-trained religious specialists. It taught the theology—not of the early bishop, monk, or professor—but of the professionally ‘qualified’ minister. This is the theology that prevails in the contemporary seminary.”

Page 206: “Concerning the seminary, we might say that Peter Abelard laid the egg and Thomas Aquinas hatched it. Aquinas had the greatest influence on contemporary theological training. In 1879, his work was endorsed by a papal bull as an authentic expression of doctrine to be studied by all students of theology. Aquinas’s main thesis was that God is known through human reason. He ‘preferred the intellect to the heart as the organ for arriving at truth.’ Thus the more highly trained people’s reason and intellect, the better they will know God. Aquinas borrowed this idea from Aristotle. And that is the underlying assumption of many—if not most—contemporary seminaries.

“The teaching of the New Testament is that God is Spirit, and as such, He is known by revelation (spiritual insight) to one’s human spirit. Reason and intellect can cause us to know about God. And they help us to communicate what we know. But they fall short in giving us spiritual revelation. The intellect is not the gateway for knowing the Lord deeply. Neither are the emotions. In the words of A.W. Tozer: ‘Divine truth is of the nature of spirit and for that reason can be received only by spiritual revelation. . . . God’s thoughts belong to the world of spirit, man’s to the world of intellect, and while spirit can embrace intellect, the human intellect can never comprehend spirit. . . . Man by reason cannot know God; he can only know about God. . . . Man’s reason is a fine instrument and useful within its field. It was not given as an organ by which to know God.’”

Page 207: “Today, Protestants and Catholics alike draw upon Aquinas’s work, using his outline for their theological studies. Aquinas’s crowning work, Summa Theologica (The Sum of All Theology), is the model used in virtually all theological classes today—whether Protestant or Catholic.”

Page 208: “Without a doubt, Aquinas is the father of contemporary theology. His influence spread to the Protestant seminaries through the Protestant scholastics. The tragedy is that Aquinas relied so completely on Aristotle’s method of logic chopping when he expounded on holy writ. . . . Regardless of how much we wish to deny it, contemporary theology is a blending of Christian thought and pagan philosophy.”

*****

As a seventeen-year-old atheist, my bible was Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Being an atheist and embracing Aristotle just made sense.

Revelation from God is superior to reason; Christ is superior to Aristotle and Aquinas.

“On this rock [of revelation knowledge—not reason] I will build my church and the gates of hell [the strategies of hell] shall not prevail against it.”

The Computer, Iowa State University and Jane Smiley

Dreams from the LORD 2011
22 February 2011

Yesterday I hitchhiked from Jackson to Riverton, Wyoming. I was watching TV at my friend’s place yesterday afternoon and I saw an interview on C-SPAN. This editor from The Washington Post was talking with Jane Smiley. Dr. Smiley was my professor for three days during the fall semester of 1989 at Iowa State University. Dr. Susan Carlson was pregnant, so several professors from the English Department filled in for her just before and after she gave birth.

Jane Smiley used to teach creative writing at Iowa State from 1981 to 1996. She has had a number of books published. In 1992, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel A Thousand Acres. This book was later made into a film; the film was released in 1997.

In the C-SPAN interview, the Post editor and Jane Smiley were discussing her most recent book, THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE COMPUTER: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer. Dr. Atanasoff was a physics professor at Iowa State in the 1930s and 40s. He helped invent the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. This was the first automatic electronic digital computer.

If I remember right, Jane Smiley’s favorite short story was “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka.

John Vincent Atanasoff

Department of Computer Science: Iowa State University
Jane Smiley
1992 Pulitzer Prize

Who was George Washington Carver?
1972 Liberty Bowl - Georgia Tech 31, Iowa State 30

Woe to the Bloody City! - George Fox

The Journal of George Fox
Edited by Rufus M. Jones

CHAPTER V
"One Man May Shake the Country for Ten Miles"
1651-1652

[A couple of days ago I hitchhiked from West Yellowstone, Montana to Driggs, Idaho. I got dropped off at this bookstore in Driggs, so I walked inside to take a look around. I noticed The Journal of George Fox and read a couple of pages from Chapter V--it was very inspiring. Below is an excerpt from Chapter V.]

"Being again at liberty, I went on, as before, in the work of the Lord, passing through the country into Leicestershire, having meetings as I went; and the Lord's Spirit and power accompanied me.

"As I was walking with several Friends, I lifted up my head and saw three steeple-house spires, and they struck at my life. I asked them what place that was. They said, 'Lichfield.' [Staffordshire, England] Immediately the Word of the Lord came to me that I must go thither. Being come to the house we were going to, I wished the Friends to walk into the house, saying nothing to them of whither I was to go. As soon as they were gone I stepped away, and went by my eye over hedge and ditch till I came within a mile of Lichfield, where, in a great field, shepherds were keeping their sheep.

"Then was I commanded by the Lord to pull off my shoes. I stood still, for it was winter; and the Word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I put off my shoes, and left them with the shepherds; and the poor shepherds trembled, and were astonished. Then I walked on about a mile, and as soon as I was got within the city, the Word of the Lord came to me again, saying, 'Cry, "Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!"' So I went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, 'Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!' It being market-day, I went into the market-place, and to and fro in the several parts of it, and made stands, crying as before, 'Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!' And no one laid hands on me.

"As I went thus crying through the streets, there seemed to me to be a channel of blood running down the streets, and the market-place appeared like a pool of blood.

"When I had declared what was upon me, and felt myself clear, I went out of the town in peace, and, returning to the shepherds, I gave them some money, and took my shoes of them again. But the fire of the Lord was so in my feet, and all over me, that I did not matter to put on my shoes again, and was at a stand whether I should or no, till I felt freedom from the Lord so to do; then, after I had washed my feet, I put on my shoes again.

"After this a deep consideration came upon me, for what reason I should be sent to cry against that city, and call it the bloody city! For, though the Parliament had had the minster one while, and the King another, and much blood had been shed in the town during the wars between them, yet that was no more than had befallen many other places. But afterwards I came to understand, that in the Emperor Diocletian's time a thousand Christians were martyred in Lichfield.

"Passing on, I was moved of the Lord to go to Beverley steeple-house, which was then a place of high profession; and being very wet with rain, I went first to an inn. As soon as I came to the door, a young woman of the house came to the door, and said, 'What, is it you? come in,' as if she had known me before; for the Lord's power bowed their hearts. So I refreshed myself and went to bed; and in the morning, my clothes being still wet, I got ready, and having paid for what I had had in the inn, I went up to the steeple-house, where was a man preaching. When he had done, I was moved to speak to him, and to the people, in the mighty power of God, and to turn them to their teacher, Christ Jesus. The power of the Lord was so strong, that it struck a mighty dread amongst the people. The mayor came and spoke a few words to me; but none of them had any power to meddle with me.

"So I passed away out of the town, and in the afternoon went to another steeple-house about two miles off. When the priest had done, I was moved to speak to him, and to the people very largely, showing them the way of life and truth, and the ground of election and reprobation. The priest said he was but a child, and could not dispute with me. I told him I did not come to dispute, but to hold forth the Word of life and truth unto them, that they might all know the one Seed, to which the promise of God was given, both in the male and in the female. Here the people were very loving, and would have had me come again on a week-day, and preach among them; but I directed them to their teacher, Christ Jesus, and so passed away."

The Journal of George Fox

Gleanings from George Fox

A Public Relations Firm

Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
12 August 2008

Last night I had a dream where I was in this office. There was this bookcase and there were files and books in the bookcase. As I was leaving the office, I noticed my two books, High Plains Drifter and Dreams from the Lord in the bookcase. I pulled Dreams from the Lord out from some files, looked at it briefly and then sandwiched it back between some files. For some reason, I believe that office had something to do with a public relations firm.

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter

Two Pleasant Surprises: High Plains Drifter Revisited

Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
17 November 2010

About five days ago I was hitchhiking south of Columbus, Montana and this guy picked me up. He drove me to Absarokee.

I told him that I had been hitchhiking for a number of years. I also said that my book High Plains Drifter was published two years ago. He said that a friend of his from Forsyth, Montana saw my book at the public library there and had read it. I never told him that my book was at the library in Forsyth. That was a pleasant surprise.

18 November 2010

This morning I hitchhiked from Victor, Idaho to Wilson, Wyoming. I got dropped off at this gas station in Wilson and I bought a candy bar there. As I walked through Wilson heading towards Jackson, I saw this guy walking to his vehicle that was parked on the shoulder. He looked at me and I looked at him; I thought I recognized him.

He pointed at me and I walked up to him and said something like, “I know you. You’re the guy from Scotland.” (Actually, I think his dad was from Scotland.)

We shook hands and hugged each other. His name was Ian. Ian had picked me up about a year ago and he took me to his place in Wilson and we had a cup of tea; we had a great talk. I think Ian has picked me up twice coming out of Jackson.

So Ian and I were talking and he said, “I read your book and loved it!”

“What?!” I exclaimed. “Wow, no one has ever said that to me before. Thanks. I hope you got something out of it.”

Ian told me that a friend of his bought a copy of High Plains Drifter for him.

We talked for a while longer and then he said that he and his friend were going up to Teton Pass to go skiing. We shook hands and parted company.

God’s timing is always perfect. I could have gotten a ride from Victor to Jackson, but no, the Lord had me dropped off in Wilson instead. It was good to see Ian again. I am guessing I will run into him again in the near future.

An American Pilgrim: Some Reflections on High Plains Drifter
Book Review:  High Plains Drifter