Coming to the Still Waters

  This is a picture of my in-laws, Harry and Asenath.  They have been on a long journey together.  77 years of marriage and still going.  How did this happen?  Well one reason was getting married young and another was drawing a line in the sand to hold true to the vows said 77 years ago at a church altar before God and many witnesses.   The line in the sand can be a good thing especially if it drives us to be urgent about the important things of life.  Jesus brings His disciples back to the line in the sand that God's plan involves His coming first to save and then His coming again to judge.  The church resides into between those two comings of Christ.  What do we need to be urgent about? In our passage we have parents urgently pleading for their children before Jesus.  Sometimes this is because of something negative happening to the child but we also see other times when parents are bring their children to Jesus in a positive setti...

  The Never Summer Mountain Range is behind me.  It is always amazing to me how people will respond more quickly to a picture than to the text.  I updated our Facebook cover photo and profile picture and people are responded left and right to it.  I do not get as much response when I print text to the same group of people.  I think this bears true with the response to video presentations of the Bible over just the written text of the Bible.  But since we don't have actual video footage of Jesus (sorry Chosen) I feel it is important to not just rely on someone's artistic presentation of the text but to read it for ourselves.  The question would be, "Am I reading more than I am watching when it comes to God's words?" I have purposely not used much video in my preaching opportunities because video will steal the show, no pun intended, to the actual passage we are looking at.  I think we need to train ourselves again to rely on what we are reading rat...

A friend of mine took the step of baptism last Saturday afternoon.  He followed what he read of his Savior in the Scriptures and made a public testimony and demonstration of dying in Christ so we might live for Him.  This played right into the passage this Sunday as we looked at Jesus' terms and conditions of what it means to follow Him. I encourage you to listen to the video below of the whole service from Sunday when we cover the passage Matthew 16:21-28. Jesus has just told His disciples of the road map going forward. They will be traveling to Jerusalem; Jesus will suffer many things from the hands of the religious leaders; He will be killed; and He will rise again on the 3rd day. Jesus will share this road map with His disciples many times before getting to Jerusalem and add more details along the way. This plan is not accepted by Peter and we assume the other disciples as well. Peter objects to the One he just called,  "The (only) Christ, the (only) Son, of the ...

  The Ptarmigan Towers towering over Lake Nanita on the Lake Nanita trail off of the North Inlet Trail in the RMNP.  To think I was thinking of climbing up there by just looking at a map!  It looks so easy on the map but when I got to the saddle I realized that reality was much different.  I had read in books about others coming from the other way, another trail, but this seemed so much shorter.  Now I know why they wrote of another route.  Here is another shot of just the first tower. The original languages of our passage help us to see reality.  Without them we can go down a different road that leads away from Christ alone and unto interpretations that elevate a man over the God-man, Jesus Christ.  I was never really good at applying the rules of the English language.  Some of them didn't make sense.  I actually did better understanding the rules of the Spanish language.  So when we dive into the Greek language the use of genders ...

  Another trip up to the summit of Mount Ida but this time with Stephanie.  12,889 ft with a 5 mile hike up the last 2500 ft from the Milner Pass trailhead.  For a moment we had the summit to ourselves except for the picas and the marmots!  We are embracing where God has put us.  This is only a small part of us living where we do.  The larger part is the work of the gospel through the local church.  Today I finished with a group of men the weekly study of the whole of the Bible we started in April of 2024.  Today Stephanie will gather with a group of women who are going through the book of Hebrews.  We are walking through the life of Jesus through the book of Matthew on Sundays that we started in March of 2024 and have reached chapter 16.  We are walking daily alongside of our church family as we and they experience the challenges of this life and in hope of the next with Jesus face to face.  Hopefully our physical endeavors are an ...

  The goal was to make it all the way up the East Inlet trail to complete the whole trail system.  I would start at 8300 ft where the East Inlet dumps into Grand Lake to 10 miles up to where it feeds 5th Lake at 10,900 ft.  I would start at 6 am and get back to the van at 4:15 pm.  6 lakes in total that would be involved in this trek, Grand, Lone Pine, Verna, Spirit, 4th, and 5th.  The trip included seeing many deer and fish and also an unexpected visitor at the final destination.  You would expect not to see anyone this deep up a trail but after about 30 minutes of alone time at 5th Lake, another hiker came over the rise to the edge of the lake.  Solitude is great but sharing the event with another has great value too.  It proved again that we live in a small world as we connected with someone we both knew. The passage this Sunday magnified the point that it is not what is external that defiles you but what is internal.  It is not the unwash...

  Do I have faith to make it back to Poudre Lake 9 miles " up " the trail?  The only consolation is I will be walking over very familiar trail and I made some mental notes of trail markers to be accomplishments on the way back.  A campsite sign, a large log along the trail and such help me to know my position and points of possible rest.  Here is an example of one. Our passage is so good because Jesus points out to His disciples someone who has "great faith."  He has done this before pointing to the centurion in chapter 8.   He will do this again when He points to the widow who puts into the offering her last two mites.  Jesus is giving His disciples people to look at who have what they don't at the time.  Jesus keeps reminding them that they have " little faith ."  They have faith but it is not as full as the faith of these.   It makes us evaluate our own faith.  Would Jesus say we have "little faith" or would He say that we have ...

  Sometimes we say, "The camera cannot do justice to what I am seeing."  The photo above is a representation of that statement.  I am on the saddle above Timber Lake to peek over on the other side to see Julian Lake and Longs Peak in the background.  Although I am very thankful to be able to take this picture and save it for future viewing, what I captured in my eyes with all the depths of color and perspective cannot be matched.  I had to be there, in that spot, to appreciate the full extent of what I was experiencing.   This is true of Jesus also.  When we rely on just others perspectives of Him, we will come up short to our time with Him.  When we rely on sound bytes and summaries of Jesus' life and not walk through personally the line by line of words and deeds, we will come up short of experiencing His full character.  Jesus gets painted in many different ways and we tend to lean to one painting of His life over another but to get t...

It was a great week with all the family in Colorado.  We are very thankful that our family has become a group of families and their great interaction with one another is what warms our hearts. I wasn't thinking about this when I was arranging the tiles of this table game we have but after taking a picture of it, it would be a great reminder to pray down the list of our 10 grandchildren.  Each one is precious and unique and we want to be supportive grandparents to them in whatever we can.  The most important way is to be examples of those who are following after Christ. A trip up the mountain trail led me to this perspective that ties in with the passage we covered on Sunday.  12,000 feet of elevation and I was able to see Longs Peak in the distance, one of Colorado's 14ers and also all of Parika Lake below me.  Jesus sent away the multitudes that He just feed and went up the mountain to be alone with His Father and pray.  From this vantage point He could se...

  This isn't 5,000 men plus women and children as in the passage last Sunday but this is our 5,000+ for the week.  It is amazing to be all around the table at once.  There are now 20 of us.  We have went from addition to multiplication in our family as each of our 4 children are now having their families.  Our 2 year reunions have been highlights of our lives and this one was spent in Colorado.  This picture featured the 20 rainbow trout the grandchildren caught at a local kids' fishing pond. Jesus is going to present 2 amazing events back to back for his disciples.  In this big feed they are ready to pass off the responsibility to someone else.  They tell Jesus to send the crowd away and their solution is that those people can fend for themselves.  They use the word " only " and calculate what was possible with the money they may have had.  The disciples were identifying and pointing at the need but they were not going to get involved ...

  Doesn't she look like a true mountain woman eating here bison/cranberry jerky?  This is a recent trip up to Lulu City on the Colorado River Trail that was only in existence for 5 years and the population of 200.  Only 3 sides of one cabin remains.  For awhile it was just us and the wildlife on the trail but this is the time of the year when people migrate to the park. We love family.  My brother and his wife, Tom and Tammy, swung into Grand Lake for a couple of days and also shared a worship experience at SCC.  This was the trek up from the Alpine Visitor Center to get our photo at the sign.  Seek to keep family ties strong.  Seek to restore them if they have been severed.  Pull out the super glue and piece it back together.  With both mom and dad gone now, my next connection to them are my siblings who carry on similar experiences of our time on Lehman Road so many years ago.   We ventured into chapter 14 of Matthew this pas...

  Here is the little bit of history.  I couldn't believe it when the Facebook Marketplace ad said this wooden pew was from the Stillwater Community Chapel; it was free; and could be delivered!  I have only seen pictures from the back of the sanctuary of the old chapel so this beauty now sits in an alcove of the hall just opposite my office.  The owner was just thrilled that the pew was going back to the church.  It has been out in the elements so a sanding and refinishing might be in its future.   Another bit of history is my almost 95 year old father went to be with Jesus a week ago Saturday.  I was able to sing songs we sang at the Turner Free Methodist Church from the Melodies of Praise and also read to him highlighted verses from his Bible.  He went peacefully to be with Jesus.  His decision back in February 1958 affected so many others up and down the family line.  At the 18:45 time stamp in the video below I give a 10 minute t...

  A belated Father's Day greeting to all the dads out there.  This is a picture of my father and his father.  Dad had signed up for a tour in the Navy when the Korean Conflict broke out.  I see his left hand here that I never saw in person because of a sawmill accident 65 years ago.  Dad was the middle of 5 children just as I am the middle of 5 with my older sister dying at birth.  I found out this week that dad had a daughter named after him, along with a grandson, a great grandson, and also a middle name to one of his nephews.  His passing as the last of his generation of the family has caused me to reflect a lot this week about life and what it throws at you at times.  I admit that sometimes I don't handle it as well as I should.  I could make excuses but really it is me not relying on the trust I have in my God more than the trust I have in myself. I don't like flying but the circumstances had me making back to back trips to Florida from ...

  This picture made me think of the old Simon and Garfunkel song published in January of 1970 titled, " Bridge Over Troubled Waters ".  Then I had to bring it up to listen to it, a great piano intro to the song.  The lyrics read, When you’re weary, feeling small, When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all I’m on your side When times get rough And friends just can’t be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down --------------------------------------- When you’re down and out When you’re on the street When evening falls so hard I will comfort you I’ll take your part When darkness comes And pain is all around Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down -------------------------------------- Sail on, silvergirl Sail on by Your time has come to shine All your dreams are on their way See how they shine If you need a friend I’m sailing right beh...

  I found this moose shed on an unmaintained trail in the RMNP last week.  It made me think of what I need to shed.  I snowshoe in the winter but not as much as I hike in the summer so I need to shed a few pounds I also found through the colder months!  It has been great to be back on the trails and also explore some that I didn't last year.  I am trying to fill in my new trail map for 2025.  But it also made me think about other things I need to shed that deal with my spiritual life. Our Sunday passage took us into chapter 13 of the Gospel according to Matthew.  The disciples notice right off that Rabbi Jesus is using a different teaching technique.  He is telling stories called parables to communicate spiritual truths.  To some they will just hear the common story with a " wow " factor in it while others will connect it to a spiritual truth.  The " wow " factor of the parable of the sower or the soils is the outcome of the seed that fe...