...God Created

Dawn and I have spent the last few days driving through some amazing country. We went through the Badlands & Black Hills on our way to Yellowstone National Park. We dropped down through Grand Tetons National Park on our way to Salt Lake City. After attending the mountains in a beautiful canyon outside of Salt Lake City we ventured over to Moab. After floating down the Colorado river we have made our way to Vail, Co. On this last leg we drove a stretch of highway out of Moab rated one of the top ten best drives by National Geographic. We also drove through Glenwood Canyon, which is possibly the most amazing stretch of interstate highway in this country. It's been spectacular. (Perhaps when we get home I can add some pictures)

It's incredible to see some of these mountains and canyons. I often hear talk in these kinds of places of how glaciers carved them out, etc. I'm starting to become a bit of a sceptic on this theory. Oh, I believe that glaciers may have played a part in the how they look today, but I don't believe they're solely responsible. It's far too beautiful. It's far too intricate. I think this drive has proven to me that God is clearly the one who created. Who knows, God may have even used glaciers to fine tune some of the beauty. And I thought an artist using oils on a canvas was impressive.

Time Away

I would like to thank those who have been reading my Blog from time to time. I especially would like to thank those who have commented. My hope is we will eventually starting getting some more comments and we can begin to dialogue about some of these rambling thoughts.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Dawn and I will be hitting the road to drive to Salt Lake City to attend a friend's wedding. It should be a great trip, filled with camping, friends, and beautiful sites along the way. However, it also means that I likely won't be posting for a while. However, feel free to check back in as I might get a chance to post and I'll pass along any insights from the road, or beautiful sites captured along the way.

Don't Worry... Jack

Matthew 6 falls in the middle of Jesus' famous sermon on the mount. It come shortly after the Beatitudes (Blessed are the...). It contains a section that encourages us not to worry. Easier said than done, right?

ODB has a devotion today that talks about Jack, an orange and white cat, who chased a bear up a tree guarding his owner's house. Just think, if a little cat can scare off a big bear, how much more can God protect us? Knowing that God is in control, what is left to worry about?

I've been preparing for a number of things lately that have caused people around me to worry, growing close to panic. "You need to call so-and-so" I hear, "If you wait too long it won't work out." Funny, it all seems to be working out in the end. It's not because I'm overly faithful or anything, it's just that things have a way of working out whether we worry or not. So why worry?

Purpose

We are in the midst of graduation season. It's the time of year we ask students questions like, "What do you want to do when you grow up? What do you plan to major in?" When we ask these kinds of questions, aren't we in essence asking, "What's your purpose in life?" Whether you are a student or not I would like to ask you, "What is your purpose in life?"

Rick Warren has had a runaway hit with "A Purpose Driven Life." I also read a couple of different suggestions for what our purpose is:

The Westminster Catechism sums it up well when it says the “chief end of man” is to “glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

and

The purpose of our lives is to let others see what God is like as they watch and experience His love through us.

I really like that second one, to reflect God's love to all the world. We are called to be mirrors. What a remarkable notion. So what would YOU say is your purpose in life?

Baby Got Book

Here's a video that might take you back a few years... sort of!

Time to Celebrate

As you hopefully know today is Syttende Mai, Norwegian Constitution Day! So get out there and celebrate. Okay, so it's doesn't always get the hype of Cinco De Mayo, but we Norwegians know how to party as well.

Oh yeah, and did you notice today in the church we celebrate the Ascension? 40 days after Easter we mark the day the risen Jesus ascended to the Father in glory. Now, there's a something to celebrate. To me, it marks that final victory over death. Yes, Jesus died for you, but He also rose again defeating sin, death and the devil. So I say, head to the streets and let's celebrate. Perhaps you might even want to break out your "wiggle dance".

Wiggle Dance

I was reading today about how bees do a wiggle dance to let other bees know where the sweet stuff is, where they can find food. It's kind of cool how they do that. I guess maybe we do that in ways as well. Think back to the last time you or a friend tried a new restaurant and found the food was good. What did you do? My guess is the response was to, nearly, immediately begin telling people about how great the food was and how you discovered a new place to eat. Maybe it's not the wiggle dance, perhaps we could call it the phone dance. I don't know.

In John 4 a Samaritan woman finds Jesus sitting at the well. Through their exchange she realizes who she is talking to... "The Bread of Life" who provides the "Water of Life" as well. What is her response? She runs into town to tell everyone where they can find this great "food" that will give them life. Have you tasted of the "Bread of Life"? Whom have you told? Perhaps we could all use some dance lessons. I think this food is worthy of a good wiggle dance.

Wind

As I look out my window this morning I can't help but notice the wind. I suppose I should say the effects of the wind (trees bobbing and weaving, the flag sticking almost straight out, etc.). I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, it seems it's windy a lot around here. Yet it strikes me this morning. Yesterday in worship we read the words of Jesus saying that he was going to have to leave, but he was going to send an advocate, the Holy Spirit. Wind is an image, you see, of the Holy Spirit. So I was thinking about this as I watched the wind begin to appear to be on the brink of violence. Isn't that fitting? How often do we desire a God who is warm, gentle and basically a cuddly teddy bear, but get something very different? Have you ever noticed how when you open up your life to be used by God you end up feeling like you've been whipped and battered by the wind? Sometimes God's "nudges" aren't all so gentle. Sometimes we need them to be a little less subtle. So this morning I ponder the wind.

Adventure

I liked the devotion today from ODB as it reminded us that adventure can be really exciting, but it can also be scary. As followers of Christ, I believe, we are called to a great adventure, which sometimes can be scary but it can also be amazing. May you find yourself in the midst of a "Godventure" today!

Looking Ahead

This last weekend we had a friend visiting us. What was really fun was that she brought her two year old daughter. While Mom, Beth, was helping Dawn with some sort of organic make-up/cleansing party (you know, those things where they charge lots of money for girly things that we guys just don't understand), I got the privilege of hanging out with Nadia. Even though it appeared a little gloomy we just had to go outside. Nadia wanted to go to the park and was thrilled to find that we had three right there. I suppose it should be noted that in her mind any sort of play set was a park. Anyway, the big draw was the swings. We played on the swings for a good long time. We did have a couple of set backs when we switched swings, though. It turned out that when I changed up the direction she was facing when we changed swings, that was not a good thing. I guess direction matters.

Paul talks about direction in life in Philippians 3 as he talks about the importance of looking forward. We have a way of looking to the past. However, when we repent we turn away from that past and we look ahead to the future. How are we ever going to get anywhere if we are looking back? We can't move ahead. I believe we are called to live our lives looking to the future, to the hope and the promise that God has given us.

Mission Accomplished

Yesterday marked the anniversary of Bush's now infamous speech underneath the "Mission Accomplished" banner. How many thousands of soldiers and Iraqi's have died since that day? It is an anniversary ripe for the picking for comedians and critics of the president alike.

Then, how many people years ago said, "Mission Accomplished" as well. They surveyed the scene saw that Jesus had died and was buried. "Mission Accomplished" Maybe not in the way they expected. Then there were the disciples that pointed to the fact that Jesus had then risen from the grave, defeating death all together, so they probably wanted to say, "Mission Accomplished." I guess they were correct... to a certain extent. Still how many have died since that day without knowing or believing the Good News of Jesus Christ? Perhaps like our military in Iraq we as Christian's still have some work to do.

Confidence

How often we too face situations that seem overwhelming and impossible. It’s in those times that we need to find our confidence in Jesus. Our first instinct may be to back away in fear. But that’s exactly when we need to look to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2), who will raise His nail-scarred hand and say, “Stay with it. Run the race. I’ve run it before you, and in My power you can win. You can do it!” —Joe Stowell

Wisdom & Knowledge

They say we live in an information age. Thanks to the Internet and other such tools we can get our fingers on all kinds of information in mere seconds. The amount of knowledge we can accumulate is phenomenal. Still, it seems, that despite all of this knowledge we lack wisdom. I see wisdom being how you use your knowledge. Solomon was REALLY smart, but he married hundreds of wives and ended up building temples to those wives gods, which led to his downfall. Terrorists like in the 9/11 attack had to acquire a lot of knowledge to be able to pull such a thing off, but it was a lack of wisdom that led them to do what they did. You need to gain a certain amount of knowledge to be able to drive, but you need wisdom to do so safely. Knowledge is available to be gained just about everywhere you turn, but true wisdom begins with one source. Which one will you use today?