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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
I Ranch for God By GEORGE E. LENZ
Circle, Montana
8 EOPLE look surprised when I tell them I ranch for God. Once I worked only for myself—and got But when I started ranching for'God, things began to happen. Take the time when sleeping sickness struck. Whole herds of horses were dying in our state. I had six hundred horses, and I had to make a decision between my ranch—and God. ■ But I am getting ahead of the story . . . . . Finances seem a 1w a y s to have played a critical part in my life. I was born in poverty and, being the eldest boy of a large family, I had to work instead of at+ending school. I was twenty years old before I (even re alized how important an education is in this world of competition. Because regular school was then impossible for me, I bought a set of textbooks, and each evening, as soon as the work on the farm was done, I would pore over my books until the early hours of the morning. I wanted to be a teacher. And I did qualify for teaching. But I suddenly faced a need for more money than a teacher’s salary would provide, so I went to Montana and started ranching for myself, working so intensively that there was ho more time for further study. Before I got my first crop harvested, the draft caught me— and I went to France.
I returned from the Argonne, broken in health. I had been wounded and so sick that I had despaired of ever reaching America again. Now that I was here,- what was I to do? I started back to Montana to begin the struggle for existence in thé only work I knew well. Even ranching seemed to prom ise only failure. Because of my in
just for curiosity. It was something to break the monotony of the daily struggle. There was something in his message that seemed to me to be un usual. I went back the next night— and the next. Every message was just for me, until one night I openly confessed my need, and took Christ as my Saviour.
into desperate circumstances doing it.
Rancher Lenz began without health and without education, but he learned how to give, as well as live, by faith. Now he has 10,000 acres of owned land, 600 horses, and a testimony that is glorious.
juries, I had to have help for most of the labor those first years, and there was no money for adequate help. A Picture in Poverty The years went on. I married. We t were very poor, so poor that often we resorted to borrowing from the chil dren’s penny banks. And though we did not realize it then, our poverty was an exact picture of our spiritual state. We gave little thought to God. We got to church only once in, a while, and never even thought of going to prayer meeting. We were dead spirit ually and .living in poverty. About this time an evangelist came to the community to conduct evange listic meetings. I went the first night
My non-Christian ne i ghbo r s ridi culed me for my stand, but for the first time in my life I knew my burden of sin was gone. I was at peace with God and I somehow knew that what concerned me physically was His concern, too. Dividends in Giving A little while after my conversion, I heard Charles E. Fuller’s radio mes sage on “Lavish Giving.” I could not forget it and it upset me considerably. I loved the Lord and I wanted to give to Him, too. “But what have I to give to You, Lord?” I asked in my con fusion. About that time a new minister came to our little church. He hewen
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