Coming to the Still Waters

Evidence that I was there.  3 hours up and 2 hours down to make it a 6 hour trip from van to van after a little time exploring around this alpine lake.  The mountains tower over and around it and the streams pour into in continually.  Next year I hope to have a fly rod attached to my backpack for this ventures.  It was a challenging hike at 12 miles round trip and a gain of over 2,000 feet in elevation.  Stephanie says I have always been drawn to challenging things. Jesus puts down a big challenge before His disciples on that hillside as He continues to deliver the Sermon on the Mount as we call it.  He wants them to have a kingdom loyal heart, kingdom focused eyes, and kingdom active hands.  The eyes nourish the heart that enact the hands but will it be for your kingdom or His kingdom?  Will your treasures be of this earth or of heaven?  Will your eyes be on seemingly benefits of the bad of this world or on the good of God?  Will your h...

  My buddy Kim who rode this mountain bike race with me October 2010 saved these race tags.  Wow!  This brought back the memories of the whole race.  We weren't really racing.  We were just trying to get to the finish line in one piece.  It was December of 2010 that I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.  So I didn't know it at the time but I was putting my body through the most grueling bike ride I had ever ridden in with an immune system that was tremendously compromised.    Cancer, chemo, radiation, and surgery altered my life.  I have a permanent colostomy bag.  The compromised digestive tract has given me times of practicing fasting for health reasons.  Sometimes fasting is the only answer to get my system back to semi-normal.  In the early days it was not uncommon to go 5 to 7 days with no food.  Now I can detect when things aren't quite right and make adjustments that are more like 1 to 2 days.  So fastin...

  I title this photo:  "A little man in a big world!" Maybe I could have titled it also, "Where's Waldo?"   Below is a zoomed in version so you can see Timber Lake in the background as I stand at the gap on Jack Straw Mountain.  The mountain peak in the above photo in the top left is Mount Ida where we had just come from.  It was a long but glorious day. I am climbing mountains as I am preaching Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.  I have had the privilege to scale a 10,000, 11,000 and 12,000 peak (Shadow Mountain, Jack Straw Mountain, and Mount Ida).  As glorious as it is to do this, it doesn't compare to the insights the Holy Spirit gives me from studying God's word. Embedded in the Lord's Prayer is the spiritual discipline of forgiving one another.  We have covered the spiritual disciplines of giving and praying and next week will be fasting.  Each has a corporate element and a private element.  The passage is dealing with the private element...

  A couple great things happened this last week.  First is a reunion with a great couple which we have not seen in over 10 years together.  The body of Christ is so wonderful and especially those you have served alongside of for 20 years.  Their encouragement to us was as if it was 1996 and we were talking about planting the church in Gaylord. I also graduated to the 60's club last week.  The church made me feel special at our monthly potluck with some cakes and a well noted card from them all.   I don't know what 60 feels like but I'm still hiking each week and riding my bike to and from town a couple times a week.  I do thank the Lord daily for my health and all those who prayed me through my time with cancer 13 years ago. A good teacher will use techniques to help his or her students to retain what is being taught.  We see Jesus doing this in the passage leading up to the Lord's Prayer.  His instruction on prayer sounds very much like...