Coming to the Still Waters

 A 4 mile hike this morning up over a 1000 ft to the cafe at the Alpine Visitor's Center in the RMNP.  A great hike with a friend and we arrived just before the doors opened so the coffee was hot and fresh.  What a great way to start the day and the week with a window seat with a mountain view!  Next was a 4 mile hike back to the car. The Specimen Mountains are some of the main attractions on this hike.  We traversed up and then came back down to Milner Pass.  It was a trial run to make sure all was well for the ladies' hike on Friday down this trail.  These mountains are protected from hiking activity so the mountain sheep have a place to be roam freely.  Limitations can be annoying at times but some limitations we need to learn to appreciate and be thankful for.  That is a possible future lesson for sure. We experienced a very different reaction from those who also heard of the angel of God, the earthquake, the other eyewitnesses there (the...

  A great Lord's Day with the church family on Sunday.  We ended the day with a baptism of J.T. with his mom and dad and stepmom along with other family and friends and his church family looking on.  The waters of Grand Lake weren't too cold and I'm thankful we get to re-create this scene in a couple of weeks.  Be in prayer for this young one who desired to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  It has been awhile since I was in the water doing this type of service. This sign means I made it up to the Ditch Road at 10,300 ft.  I am strengthening up my knee and calf and it was a good 10 mile loop last Friday.  The second picture is the contour of the Ditch Road and the Grand Ditch along the Never Summer Mountain Range to catch the snow melt and send it to reservoirs in the opposite direction for Denver.  I came from around the corner of the ledge formed by the road on the mid far right of the picture.  It was a se...

  According to the National Park Service, I am officially have senior status.  The once a year $80 fee is replaced by a once in a lifetime $80 fee.  I will pull this out many times hopefully and also display in the windshield when needed.  It promoted a little hike in the park. Here is a new picture of the barn with Baker Mountain and the Green Knoll in the background.  I was thankful for the breeze coming across the valley. Here is also my companion for this maiden senior hike in the park.  She has one of those cards too.  I've got a couple trips planned for us in the near future. We finished up chapter 27 of Matthew this Sunday.  We have one chapter left (probably 3 sermons).  Jesus is in the rich man's tomb on the Sabbath.  Matthew seems to want us to know this 3 day event.  He points out the Day of Preparation (the 6th day of the week) for the Sabbath, the Sabbath (the 7th day of the week) and then the 1st day of the week after ...

The exciting event is related to the screenshot of the east end of Grand Lake.  At this point we have a couple people who are going to get baptized on Sunday, August 9th.  I am praying for more to take this step of obedience and also public proclamation of Jesus as their Savior.  I am also praying it will be another bonding event of the attenders of SCC.  I do believe the family ties are getting stronger. I will cover two passages here because last week was full of kids and grands.  Both Stephanie and I are recovering from full days of non stop activities.  Fishing, swimming, hiking, board games, an amusement park day, bike riding and so much more.  We are so thankful for those times when family can make it to Grand Lake.  I had the opportunity to make it to the summit of Mt. Ida again so one each summer I have been here. The first passage deals with the all out mocking of Jesus from the Roman soldiers, the head wagging crowd, the merely religious...

Below is the new addition to our family.  He is number 11 of the grands.  Stephanie had the pleasure of helping with family life when this little one came along.  When you get to a certain age, you start adding years ahead to calculate what you will be when he is....  It is such a joy to watch not only our grands grow up but also to witness the developments of families from our family.  We were 6 and now we are 21!  But this blog is primarily about another one that Jesus interacts with on the way to the cross. Pilate is quite the character in the cross narrative to study.  You sense the tension he is under but he keeps taking advice and acting upon the information from the wrong people.  He is in many pickles with this situation. One pickle is with the Sanhedrin who want him to do their bidding just because they say so.  He knows their motive of envy and struggles with the charges they bring until they finally say that Jesus said He was God. ...

The perfect passage for this quote is what we went through as a body of believers of Jesus at Stillwater Community Chapel last Sunday.  Judas is said to have remorse or regret for what he had done.  His remorse didn't take him to the Father or to Jesus but rather back to those he had made a pack with.  It would also lead him to continue on the path of man on what to do with sin.   This passage was our first in chapter 27 but it is the third of looking at individuals around Jesus who is headed to the cross.  We had devoted Mary of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  We had self-confident Peter.  We have this week the just remorseful Judas.  Next week we will have the perceptive and people pleaser Pilate.   This topic of remorse and repentance has dominated my thoughts this week.  It turned into these two lists for me. Remorse: regret change your mind on how you feel your plan enacted follow the world's solutions Repentance: to make a tu...

The mountains are coming alive with color.  Here is a quartet of columbine.  The splash of color signifies new life after the season of snow.  The whiteness is replaced by all the colors of the rainbow.  The ultimate " whiteness " is Jesus as without sin and what comes from His sacrificial season here are those of us of different colors and from different places blossoming from the forgiveness of our sins and putting on a show for His glory.  There is my metaphor for the day. We finished up chapter 26 of Matthew with a deep look at the denials of Peter.  The denials are actually lies and somehow that makes it more serious in my eyes.  These lies of Peter progress in intensity.  First , it is deflection back onto the servant girl that she is the crazy one to bring this up.  Second is Peter making physical distance and finding the shadows of the gateway.  Third , Peter vows with an oath upon himself that he doesn't know the man Jesus....

  The roof project has been completed!  We can't say " thank you Lord " enough.  We were able to raise $61,105.00 of the $110,000.00 so far.  Funds came in from all over the United States.  When you crest the rise on US Hwy 34 just before the church, the green roof catches you eye.  The problem areas were addressed and the very brittle shingles came off with hardly any effort.  The roofing company we hired did a fantastic job and clean up was exceptional with it spanning over 2 Sundays.  We have a 20 year warranty on workmanship, 20 years from the insurance company on replacement value and 50 years on the shingles themselves.   We are also in the time of the year that we have visitors from all over each Sunday.  We might only see them once but we are thankful to connect with brothers and sisters in Christ from other parts of the country or just across the pass to the Front Range.  We strive to be a beacon of the gospel of Jesus...

  If you look closely in the mirror you can see me.  I have actually taken the bus a couple of times.  I have enough time to do my weekly errands in town and also to take my current book that I am reading and get through some more chapters.  People are also talkative on the bus so I get to strike up some conversations.  It has only been a couple of weeks but people are using this service between Granby to our south and Grand Lake to our north.  Maybe I will get to know the bus drivers who are stopping at a church for one of their stops. Above this park overlooking Grand Lake and its small beach are benches and yesterday I was able to watch 2 F-16s fly over the lake at eye level 3 times.  It must have been a training run.  This was a little excitement to one of the places I go to read and study and also a popular spot for Stephanie and I for our Sunday afternoon non-dairy ice cream treat.  It is summer so town is busting at the seams almost ev...

  We are one of the stops of the Gold Line known as the Rocky Express between Granby and Grand Lake.  It is a free service.  I have figured out that I can hop on the bus, do my business in town and then catch a ride back.  It also services the Amtrak train stop in Granby to shuttle people up to Grand Lake.  Our front pull through parking lot works well for this and it runs 3 times a day.   In the background you can see that the church is now ready for shingles this week.  The drip edge is being completed today.  This is a huge project for such a little congregation and it shows how big our God is!  We rejoiced in our annual meeting of $60,880.00 raised of the $110,000.00. A month ago I switched out the starter on our 2012 Honda Odyssey van with 263,000 miles.  It worked a month and then it acted up like before.  I bought a new battery which was 6 years old but to no avail.  I pulled the new starter out and had it bench tes...

  It has started.  By the end of the day our roof will be all ice and shield and ready for shingles next week.  The goal is to be completed by next Friday.  We have raised so far $60,580.00 of the $110,000.00 project.  A huge thank you to all who have helped us with this.  Your contributions will add this building as a place to gather for worship for years to come! Our annual meeting is this Sunday where we map out the new year and look at what has happened in the last.  It has been a time for me to tie up loose ends like church insurance, financial reports and budgets, and the process forward with our constitution and bylaws.  I have been very busy while Stephanie has been away to Florida but soon home! On a sad but going home report, Stephanie's father, Harry passed on to glory on Thursday, June 4th.  Stephanie and her mom and sister were caring for him in his home until the end.  I am thankful to say that I had 2 dads.  I thought...

 It is the time of mowing in Colorado.  It usually doesn't last long and for us it is taming the weeds and dandelions.  Another task of a small town pastor that I have done over the 40 years of ministry.  It has always been a great time to think through again the message coming up on Sunday.  June 1 is not only our 41st wedding anniversary but also our 40th anniversary of full-time ministry. Sometimes 40 years means covering for each other at times.  Stephanie is in Florida caring for her parents so I had the privilege of getting the Family Dinner Night ready.  It was wings' night along with potato salad and baked beans.  All things I could handle.  It is a time of grief for Steph.  We lost our dog of 11 years, Buddy, just recently to cancer and now she is sitting beside her father in his last stages of life.  The last words and last actions can be so vital to hear and see.  I am so thankful Stephanie is there as I was last yea...

  One of the tomato plants for the deck this year.  The house is looking like a greenhouse lately as we get ready for the growing season window in this part of the country.  Stephanie has the green thumb and I'm the water boy. We finished up Jesus' 5th sermon, the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 & 25, this Sunday.  It was great to go through this passage again with Jesus speaking directly about His 2nd coming.  He makes it clear that there are only 2 groups and 2 destinations.  This week we looked at His sheep on His right hand and the goats on the left.  One is judged to eternal life and the other to eternal punishment.   It was interesting to see how Jesus used possession when speaking about His sheep and left off the possession when He talked about the goats.  Jesus also went back to the theme of focusing more on the " how " rather than the " when " and " what ."  He focused on how the sheep were responding and how the goats w...

The logo above represents an investigation that is going a little deeper tonight in the fellowship hall of the church.  We, as an small independent church, are exploring options that would help us with spiritual oversight and financial sustainability.  This is just one of the avenues we have been praying about.  As we think about the possibility of coming under the " umbrella " of another, we have to discern that this organization is also in total submission to the word of God.  From what I know of the EFCA, I believe they are and I am thankful for the opportunity to hear from a representative of the district about their Bible based mission, purpose and vision.  Pray with us and for us that we would see if this is the direction in which we should pursue for God's glory. We are nearing the end of the Olivet Discourse and Jesus has been generally answering the " when " and " what " questions of His disciples but also specifically answering the " how...