Coming to the Still Waters

  "A table for 4 please."   These were my company this morning just outside my office window.  The warmer temperatures lately must have brought them out of hiding and cover.  The little reprieve from the cold has been nice but I am sure more is coming before we see true spring.  I'm learning a lot about avalanches in this area. After a little over 2 month break from our study in the Gospel of Matthew, we were back at it picking up in chapter 10.  Jesus picks His team.  Jesus calls them to Himself; Jesus gives them authority and ability to do what He has been doing; Jesus sends them out to a specific region; and Jesus commands or instructs them on what to take, or not take, and how they are to respond.  These commands and instructions will continue throughout the chapter.  This passage was more about the naming of His disciples who would be sent out as His apostles. Relying just upon the Scriptures, we can still have enough detail of the 12 to...

  The icicles are growing!  I am thankful this is not a walkway.  I am also thankful that the heat tapes are doing their job because I don't have a roof rake long enough to reach this pitch.  The snow is continuing to come down in Grand Lake and we are creating our own mountains of snow.  Our President's Day weekend brought in some more visitors from the Front Range to worship with us. We finished up our in-depth study of the first coming of Christ, Christmas.  Our guide was pretty much Luke 1 and 2.  We ended with the Luke only account of Jesus at the age of 12 in the temple with the teachers after being left behind after this family headed back home after the Passover.  This time through this passage I noticed a few things I hadn't recently seen. One was that they were amazed and astonished at this 12 year old answering questions as He was.  The Greek word picture is that Jesus was " out of place " as a 12 year old to be able to do this....

  I am getting a lot of time with my yellow snow shovel, red winter coat, and the white stuff behind me.  I feel I have been gone back about 40 years to our first appointment in Roscommon, Michigan.  A little church that did not have much in resources so I would shovel the parking lot when needed.  Last Saturday I did the same again 40 years later.  I am just so thankful that I am able to do it!  Over the years these manual labor tasks are never just what they seem.  It has always been a time to pray, go over my sermon, and discern over and decide on my most pressing concern.  So if it is shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, mopping or sweeping floors or setting up chairs for church, it has been a time with God in my mind while my arms and legs are in motion. We are almost through our in-depth look at the first coming of Christ, Christmas or Advent in the common language of the Church.  We were able to look at a couple more witnesses that point t...

  Stillwater at twilight from the snowshoe trail.    One of the things I have tried to do is make our meeting place more visible.  Our next door neighbor to the church building is a bar/restaurant and many times I have to describe where the church building is by saying, "We are next to..." and the response back is, "Oh, now I know where you are talking about."   Church buildings can become almost invisible to the occupants of the cars passing by them each day.  Maybe a lighted steeple next!  Hidden in plain sight and maybe that is a metaphor for Jesus in many peoples' lives.  He is there. but they don't see Him until He makes Himself known by lighting up ! The sky was lite up by God through the angels on that night that Jesus was born.  The shepherds can't help but see that this night was not like other nights.  The sheep are in the fold and all accounted for and then wham the angel appears and then a bunch of his friends.  The me...