Coming to the Still Waters

  I got my feet wet in the alpine lake of Lake Parika after hiking 9 miles to get there.  A rise of about 2800 feet in elevation and 6 hours of breath taking scenery.  Parika Peak is behind me and someday I hope to summit it.  It takes some discipline to make these hikes.  It was another 3 hours to get back to the trailhead before heading home. We ventured into Matthew 6 this week and what I call the trilogy of spiritual disciplines, giving, praying and fasting.  The similar language that Jesus uses in each of these shows us that each is important to the life of the believer.  It is interesting that He starts with the one that we might think less of as a spiritual discipline.  Maybe it is also the one that we as less to be diligent at even though it is probably the one most easily to keep these days.  We can now schedule our giving to be done and forget about it.  Pretty hard to do that with prayer and fasting. The Bible gives us 2 ways ...

  Another Cascade Falls on the trail from Monarch Lake up to Crater Lake. Crater Lake and looking at Lone Eagle Peak. Maybe the cascading waterfalls is a good picture of what Jesus' disciples are experiencing as they sit with Him on the mountainside and He is instructing them on what a disciple of Himself is like.  It might have felt like a cascading waterfall of information that involved tremendous life change.  Jesus was pouring out to them that His ways are much higher than man's ways. Last week we studied that He told them to not promote themselves by puffing themselves up but that their communication would be a simple yes and no response.  He told them not to return insult for insult.  He told them to give to those who want to take and rely on Him for their needs.  He told them to go the extra mile with those who who are using force or rights to get their way.  He told them to be people who share instead of store.  Each of these situations co...

  The view of Grand Lake from the summit of Shadow mountain. This is a very different perspective from the beach in town below.  From the beach you are looking up and from here you are looking down.  From the beach you see a part of the lake and from here you can view all of the lake.  From each vantage point you can learn something about what you are seeing.  What if I had never climbed Shadow Mountain to see it from this different view? Jesus has been taking His disciples through some of the commandments of the Bible and showing them a different perspective so they could have a different response to the common teachings of the day.  Instead of just making sure you don't murder someone, Jesus points them to take many steps back and deal with unresolved anger toward another and work toward true reconciliation.  Instead of just making sure you don't commit adultery with someone else's spouse, Jesus points them to take many steps back and deal with impur...