This Old House

Do not store up for yourselves wealth here on earth....Matt 6.19

On the road to Billings Tunnel outside Salida Colorado, there is ghost town. This is a picture of the 1880's general store that was in the center of a bussling, thriving mining community. It was new, flashy (by 1880s' standards because everyone else lived in tents) and even had two cellars to store goods (now just large holes in the ground). Now it is 14 logs stacked on top of each other and a few sheets of tin scattered around. That's it. In fact, of all the remains of 23 cabins and businesses, this is the one in the best condition.

It's hard to believe that very little will remain of our "empires" 100 years after we are gone. A few sticks or rocks on top of each other and that's it. That's all. Kind of sad, isn't it? But if we invest in the spiritual kingdom, if we spread the gospel by living right and loving others, that investment never dies. It continues to grow, build and thrive in the hearts of others, passing in on and on and on.

Most of the churches, businesses and homes that exist now, will not even be a memory in 100 years....but the Word of the Lord keeps going and going and going. Invest in loving people, talking up Jesus and serving the Lord and watch that investment grow for centuries to come.

Sunday Pics

Here are some pictures I took recently in Colorado.

Sometimes I like to photograph the small things around instead of huge panoramic pics. Sometimes there is beauty in the small things, the things that go unnoticed (unless you are looking for them).

Wrestling with God

When I was in junior high and high school, I wrestled on the Paonia (Colo.) wrestling team. My sons laugh when they hear I was a wrestler because they imagine I was a WWF wrestler, in a ring, jumping off the top ropes doing a flying toe hold or hitting someone over the head with a wooden chair. But being on the wrestling team was great. Practices were grueling but they built me up and gave me endurance. Travelling to other cities was cool because you got to hang out with friends on four- to ten-hour bus trips. The physicality of wrestling is like no other sport.

I was reading about Jacob wrestling with the angel...the story facsinates me. Being that close to a spiritual being boggles my mind. It certainly represents nicely the number of things I have wrestled with God in my life, my flesh and heart constantly coming up against my spiritual and moral beliefs.

I am constantly wrestling with God about something. But you know something, I think God likes it when I wrestle with Him. God doesn't want to be detached and distant in my life, He wants to be in there, close, touching me, working me out. He doesn't want to be an intellectual concept or a religious icon. The nature of wrestling is close, physical and God loves it... because you can't wrestle with someone who is far away. They have to be close to you. It's a very intimate, personal activity.

I like it when God manhandles me. No matter what move I make, He holds on to me and counters each move. I want to be lovingly mauled by my Father just like my sons like it when I wrestle with them. I hold them down and maul them and they smile the entire time, knowing I am not going to hurt them but they know they are not powerful enough to take me...yet. We both enjoy the physical time together and it creates a bond, a loving bond, with each other.

I want God that close. I want him on top of me matching me move for move. I want Him close enough to feel His breath and know His strength. When my flesh has an issue with Him and I walk onto the mat, like Jacob wrestling, I don't think He is angry nor do I think He wants to crush me. I think He is happy, because I am close....I am at least willing to walk onto the mat with Him. Wrestling with God doesn't mean He has given up on me or is slapping me around; it is His way of showing how close He really is and that he loves me....and He always wins.

What has your experience of wrestling been?

Persecution

How blessed you are whenever people hate you and ostracize you and insult you.....Luke 6.22

When was the last time someone hated you? Did you feel blessed or did you feel bad? I am supposed to be glad when someone hates me? What?!!?

A preacher friend of mine is a affirmation/acceptance junkie. He hates it when someone doesn't like a sermon he preaches. He hates conflict and will do pretty much anything to avoid it. He goes out of his way to make sure people are good with him. His sermons are watered down, entertainment speeches that lack anything that would make anyone uncomfortable or feel convicted. He needs everyone to like him (even though he denies that).

But isn't there a part of that in all of us? The need to be liked contaminates our evangelism. Very few people are willing to be hated. People just don't want to risk rejection, ridicule or insult for the Gospel. The Gospel counters our need to be liked, wanted, befriended and accepted. When our gospel is contaminated by the need for acceptance, it gets watered down, it becomes for factual than personal. The Gospel is more than Jesus facts and theological proofs (at least I hope it is). It is more than exegesis, hermeneutics and lectures.

The Gospel is the most personal story of who we are. It is how Jesus moves in us, changes us, and gives us purpose and meaning. The Good News is very personal and vulnerable because, for a Christian, it is the very essence who we are. It is the story of our own personal redemption, the motive for living and the hope for the future. Take the Gospel personally and you risk rejection.

The Gospel is the most intimate discussion we can have. The Spirit moves in our story. God uses our story to convict the listener and confront sin. He uses our story to express His love, mercy and grace. He uses our Gospel to proclaim His Gospel. And the church is dying because many won't even talk about it.

Talk about the Gospel. Let the God use your story to tell his story. What is the Gospel to you? Is it more factual or personal?

The Road Less Travelled

In life, there are so many have tos, shouldn'ts, don'ts, gotta's, normals, averages and need too's, its nice to take the less travelled four wheel drive road away from convention. Here's what we saw when we took a two wheel drive Tahoe up a four-wheel drive road:

I wish you could feel the 50 degree wind whistling through the rocks and wildflowers. It's very refreshing on an August day (when it is 105 degrees in Texas).

The flowers that grow here are like no other anywhere else in the world.

At this altitude, spruce trees only get about 6 foot tall.

Yep, that is snow in August. Yep, we got in a snowball fight. Yep, it was cold.

I encourage you to take the less travelled road....the road that takes you where you didn't even know you needed to be to see things you didn't know existed. It stretches your faith and puts your trust squarely where it needs to be...in the hands of God. Forgive someone who hurt you. Feed a homeless person. Give a generous gift to church or an charity that does good for people. Raise your hands in church. Pray out loud for 6 hours. Do something daring that God is moving you to do. God wants you to take the risk, follow him into adventure. Your faith won't know what hit it...

Vision to See

Five years ago, my middle son made an off handed remark that he couldn't see the marker board in front of the classroom. I made an offhanded remark that maybe he needed to go to the nurse and get his eyes checked. So the next day he did just that....and we got a call from the nurse that there were problems with his vision and we needed to take him for a more extensive examination. OK, no problem...his uncle is an ophthalmologist....so we took him for the exam.

Come to find out, he is legally blind. He could barely see shapes and light much less read what was on the board at school. He played baseball and had a pretty good batting average but got struck out alot on balls he should have hit. So he gets his new glasses and says...hey, there's leaves on trees, lawns have blades of grass, look there's cloud's in the sky, and....all the way home he was pointing out things he couldn't see before, reading billboards, etc. He started reading books (by the 1,000's), hitting the baseball, and just noticing things in his world that he couldn't see before.

Yesterday, my youngest son asked him, "Why didn't you tell someone that you couldn't see?" His answer: "Because I didn't know I couldn't see. When you are born not being able to see very well, you don't know you can't see. You think you see like everyone else but really you can't. It's kinda sad. There's probably alot of people out there who can't see but just don't know it."

Isn't that true of us all spiritually? We think we see the world clearly and understand perfectly when Scripture clearly states:

"For now we see obscurely in a mirror,
but then it will be face to face.
Now I know partly; then I will know fully,
Just as God has fully known me.

We all need glasses, even if we think we have perfect spiritual vision. We all are "dumber than a post" even if we think we are "theological Eisteins." When will we understand that we just don't get it...none of us do. We are all fumbling and stumbling towards God. All of us. Only God can give us the vision to see Him clearly...but just wait until heaven...when we can clearly see.

He leads me beside still water

This picture is my entry in the Texas State Fair under the category of "Clouds." The title of the picture is "Clouds on Still Waters." It reminds me of Psalms 23:

Adonai is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He has me lie down in grassy pastures,
he leads me by quiets water,
he restores my inner person.

He guides me in right paths
for the sake of His own name.
Even if I pass through death dark ravines,
I will fear no disaster, for you are with me;
your rod and staff reassure me.

You prepare a table for me,
even as my enemies watch;
you anoint my head with oil
from an overflowing cup.

Goodness and grace will pursue me
every day of my life;
and I will live in the house of Adonai
for years and years to come.

-The Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern