Went to the mountains to explore far away places...(UPDATED)

and found friendship.

....we also summited a peak in freezing cold weather, high wind, and in white-out conditions...

but who cares about that?

(photo courtesy of David Brooks)

(Photo courtesy of David Brooks (on right))

Friendship is the thing we take off the mountain.

Saturday's a comin'

Good people of Vancouver.

The weekend is almost here....

People before pleasure
Service before self

Worthy of my attention

From the good people, The Work of the People



I like it
And I don't like it

How about you?...

Your Thoughts? Ted Haggard 'I'm Worthless'

What do you think?

A video here:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6753909

and a news report. Here:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6753909

In a Sex Saturated World....

A good reminder this morning...

Proverbs 5

1-2 Dear friend, pay close attention to this, my wisdom; listen very closely to the way I see it.
Then you'll acquire a taste for good sense;
what I tell you will keep you out of trouble.

3-6 The lips of a seductive woman are oh so sweet,
her soft words are oh so smooth.
But it won't be long before she's gravel in your mouth,
a pain in your gut, a wound in your heart.
She's dancing down the primrose path to Death;
she's headed straight for Hell and taking you with her.
She hasn't a clue about Real Life,
about who she is or where she's going.

7-14 So, my friend, listen closely;
don't treat my words casually.
Keep your distance from such a woman;
absolutely stay out of her neighborhood.
You don't want to squander your wonderful life,
to waste your precious life among the hardhearted.
Why should you allow strangers to take advantage of you?
Why be exploited by those who care nothing for you?
You don't want to end your life full of regrets,
nothing but sin and bones,
Saying, "Oh, why didn't I do what they told me?
Why did I reject a disciplined life?
Why didn't I listen to my mentors,
or take my teachers seriously?
My life is ruined!
I haven't one blessed thing to show for my life!"

15-16 Do you know the saying, "Drink from your own rain barrel,
draw water from your own spring-fed well"?
It's true. Otherwise, you may one day come home
and find your barrel empty and your well polluted.

17-20 Your spring water is for you and you only,
not to be passed around among strangers.
Bless your fresh-flowing fountain!
Enjoy the wife you married as a young man!
Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose—
don't ever quit taking delight in her body.
Never take her love for granted!
Why would you trade enduring intimacies for cheap thrills with a whore?
for dalliance with a promiscuous stranger?

21-23 Mark well that God doesn't miss a move you make;
he's aware of every step you take.
The shadow of your sin will overtake you;
you'll find yourself stumbling all over yourself in the dark.
Death is the reward of an undisciplined life;
your foolish decisions trap you in a dead end.

Question

Have you ever felt ecstatic?

You know...from the word ecstacy. Meaning:

1. rapturous delight.
2. an overpowering emotion or exaltation; a state of sudden, intense feeling.
3. the frenzy of poetic inspiration.
4. mental transport or rapture from the contemplation of divine things.

I felt that recently...

Sabbath Surfin...

Found these today...made me remember one of the rhythms of my youth. A cadence which still moves me.



and...

New Web Albums - Check them out!

This past weekend, Joe (and friends!) did a winter ascent on Crown Mountain, you can see it in the picture below. Its the triangular peak on the left.

Click on the photo to visit the web album

Two weeks ago we visited St. Mark's Summit on the Howe Sound Crest Trail (south)

It was a beautiful day. In Vancouver it was foggy and downright ugly. On the mountains...spectacular!!

You can click on the photo to visit the album.

Three weeks ago...we went to Elfin Lakes.

Lots of powder...up to our thighs in places.

Click the photo to visit the album.

A HUGE bummer

Last monday, we went skiing. We LOVE skiing! It was a beautiful day at Grouse Mountain, the kind of day that you never want to end.


Heidi buckled her boots, Joe took pictures and we both sent off down the run....


Suddenly Heidi hit a really weird bump with a moat on the other side, caught an edge, lost a ski and did a 360 degree spin. My heart stopped. She grabbed her left knee and began to cry.

I know that cry...its the sound of intense pain being held back my pride. She was willing her tears to stop and the pain to go away. But it didn't.

A ski patrol guide, saw her (us) and came over. He called a ski mobile and the ski mobile picked her up and took her to the medic on the top of the hill.


Heidi was bummed. When I asked her if she was OK. She said, "well, I love skiing, but I love climbing even more...I hope this doesn't screw up our climbing trip to Red Rocks in 3 weeks"


We spent the rest of the day, eating pizza on the mountain and trying not to think about Heidi's agonizing pain. Because we couldnt go to the doctors untill the next day, Heidi didnt want to ruin the day....so we ended up going to the climbing gym that night. Joe climbed, and heidi worked out on the fingerboard.


The next day, we went to the doctor's office. Diagnosis:

A second degree MCL sprain. Translation: A partial tear (as seen above) and a 5 week recovery.

A HUGE bummer.

BUT....

It could be a lot worse. The difference between a state II and stage III injury is like 6 months recovery time. We are HAPPY with a recovery time of a few more weeks.

All hope is not lost...

Heidi is is treating her knee well by regular icing and keeping off of it. Joe is doing everything he can for her...to keep her off of it (no small task)...and we are hoping that she will be 75% by the time we go to Red Rocks...resulting in a climbing trip not spoiled by an unusable knee.

(note: the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth photos are taken from the internet)

May I remind you...

As you look forward to a weekend full of adventure and fun...Remember:

People before Pleasure
Service before Self

Eco-Footprint

Came across this place today

On their website...you can measure your eco-footprint. Go ahead...try it!

Prayer

Prayer does indeed have to do with accomplishing God's will. You are called into prayer either that you might collaborate with him in bringing his will to pass or that you might get a larger vision of what he is like

Faith is an attitude of will which says, 'whether I feel that God is there or not, whether I feel he will heed me or not, his Word tells me he hears and answers and I am going to count on that

John White
Daring to Draw Near

The Deadly B's

When preaching avoid the Deadly B's

...it happens when you tell people to:
Be stronger
Be better
Be more gentle
Be more hopeful

Instead...offer them the God of the text who is at work redeeming peoples lives, giving life.

Romans 8:11

11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

"The Deadly B's are not bad in themselves, but by themselves" -Phil Long

We grow because of the work of God's Spirit. Not because we tried harder to be better.

Thanks to Phil Long (and Brian Cambell) for getting me thinking about this subject today

Welcome!

To our new President. Please act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with God

We offer you a warm welcome.

Read his full Inaugural Address Here

Something to remember...

when its foggy, gloomy, and downright depressing outside in Vancouver

photo: David snowshoeing above the fog in Vancouver's North Shore Mountains

In tribute to a man who still influences me

Martin Luther King's last speech before his assassination:

War Sucks

please Lord....bring Shalom

courtesy of mike's blog

Snowshoeing - St. Marks Summit

We dad a great day in the mountains today. We were a team of 4: Joe, Heidi, David, Dan

due to a temperature inversion....the city was foggy and cold 3c, and we were above the clouds with 10c and sun!

the beautiful vista we had lunch on...

a day to remember

If you would like to see the entire album with more pictures...click here

Last Week - Snowshoeing

Here are some pictures taken from last weeks snowshoeing trip to Elfin Lakes

Breaking trail, at times into waist deep powder

We did about 20km that day

It never stopped snowing

Heading back in hopes of another adventure...

Priorities

People before Pleasure

Service before Self

From Problem to Person

We had a problem

          so He became a person

-Jeremy Rios

The God I serve is not the impersonal God, the deist God...

He is Jesus the Jew of Nazareth:

"The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,

   a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about him,

   nothing to cause us to take a second look.

He was looked down on and passed over,

   a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

   We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

   our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

   that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,

   that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

   Through his bruises we get healed.

We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.

   We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,

   on him, on him" (Isaiah 53: 2-6) 

For the Mind and Heart

Love proves its authenticity in fidelity, but reaches its completion in forgiveness
-Werner Bergengruen

The shabby streets of my soul were still littered with debris of vanity, dishonesty, and degraded love..." - Brennan Manning

Romans 12: 1-5

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true
worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's
will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say
to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but
rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God
has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many
members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we,
though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others

True worship of God comes from responding to the mercy God has shown us. God is concerned with our entire person when it comes to worship. This response is both physical (e.g. using our bodies in acts of service and holiness) and mental (e.g. renewing our minds). The result is a transformed life that knows and lives according to God’s will. In other words, the Apostle Paul is concerned here with each of us having a right view of ourselves and each other. Pride is one of the greatest threats to unity in the body of Christ, for it leads to division, judgment, condemnation, and a false self-esteem. Thus, Paul calls us to view ourselves in the right way:

1) as people who have been graced by God with faith and
2) as members of one body in Christ with different, yet equally important, functions.

Aim for true worship.

Dr. John Stackhouse

Here is the latest blog from professor John Stackhouse, Professor at Regent College. I've given you a snippet and encourage you to read the rest on his blog. Enjoy!

Give God What He Wants
January 4, 2009

“Did you have a good Christmas?” Kids know how to interpret that question. It means, “How was your haul? Did you get everything you wanted from Santa?”

I wonder if God had a good Christmas. I wonder if he got what he wanted.

If not, maybe he waited for New Year’s Eve to hear what resolutions we would make for 2009 and see if those held any promise for him.

So, a few days after New Year’s, do you think God got what he wanted—from you, from me?

Hello. My name is John and I am a careeroholic.

(Those of you who suffer similarly are now supposed to say, “Hi, John!” from the circle of shared affliction and failure.)

I have had reason recently to update and send out a c.v. I love doing that. Look at those lines of type, each signifying something I did. Accomplishments. Triumphs. Awards. VICTORI—

Sorry.

But if I am honest, I do tend to measure out my life, not in coffee spoons, but in résumé entries.

Sunday Surfin' (UPDATED)

ahhh...that's better...much better

Sunday Surfin'

Is this interesting to you?...



To me....not really...

I'm a mammas...

Boy.

I can't help it

Like Clay...

I watched it, mesmerized by its evolving shape.

It started as a lump of nothingness: brown, dry, square and uninteresting. Yet the artist seemed to enjoy this process of evolving chaos. The artist plopped a lump of clay, which at the time looked like a cow patty, into the palm of my hand. I was instantaneously anxious. Anxious because she was expecting me to create something I could be proud of. I said, "I don't know how," she replied "It doesn't matter, just try". I said, "I don't know what to make," she replied "close your eyes, feel the clay in your hands, squeeze your fingers into it and then open your eyes. What do you see? When you see something, improve it".

The more this artist talked the more stupd I thought she was. But, "stupd is as stupid does", so I did it: I tried. I felt my fingers sink into the clay; it felt "dirty" but satisfyingly cool. I considered the way my hands had contorted, the way in which the clay worked itself in between my fingers. I stated to like the oozy feeling. I was ready to open my eyes. I opened them and I saw it. My creation. It was a sea otter! I said to the artist, "hey, look, it's a sea otter!" She replied, "Hmm, well, if you see it, that's good". OK, so maybe my sea otter sucked. I then spent the next hour improving my sea otter so that others could see what I saw in my minds eye.

I wanted others to see what I imagined for my creation.

A Thought: What if every person, every human life, was clay in hands of God? What seemed like humanoid- evolving-chaos, to Him was artistic process. What if God holds us in his hands, closes his eyes and imagines something beautiful and then fashions us in that image?

1 Corinthians 12: 7 says, "Now to each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." Verse 11 states, "All these are the work of the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just has he determines".

What is the image in which we are fashioned? The image of God Himself! This image is seen in the unique work of the Spirit in a person's life for the common good.

Like clay in the hands of God, we ask our Creator to mould us and fashion us in his Spirit.

Why?

Because we want others to see what He imagines for our world.

Looks cool...Missional Tribe

Got this link from Mike Todd

It's a new website called:




and...i might join...cause Mike did, and the logo is super cool...

Does that make me shallow?

Dead in Gaza

30 more. Again. More.


Please Lord. Bring Shalom.

Christ in Neighbor

From Brennan Manning's book entitled, "The Wisdom of Tenderness"

Because of the mysterious substitution of Christ for the Christian, each encounter with a brother or sister is a real encounter with the with the risen Lord, an opportunity to respond creatively to the gospel and mature in the wisdom of tenderness

Love of another lies at the heart of the Christian moral revolution. The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.

Are you ready for this litmus test?

Thomas Merton

Without love and compassion for others, our own apparent love for Christ is fiction

no love - no compassion - no Christ

Baby Got Book

From Dan "Southpaw" Smith

How ya feelin'

From Brennan Manning's book entitled, "The Wisdom of Tenderness"

Self-hatred for real or imagined failures begets crippling guilt and is spawned by the father of lies. It thwarts God's plan for our existence, our personal standing in the world. When we scorn ourselves and say, "I'm a born loser, a fraud, a hypocrite," then we scorn the divine plan - scorn all the dreams God would realize through us, all the joy he anticipates from us, and all the hope he has placed in us

...The wisdom of tenderness allows us to love our whole life story and know that we've been graced and made beautiful by the providence of our past history. "even from my sins," wrote Augustine of Hippo, "God has drawn good." All the wrong turns in the past, the detours, the mistakes, the moral lapses - everything that's irrevocably ugly or painful melts and dissolves in the light of accepted tenderness. As Australian theologian Kevin O'Shea remarks, "One rejoices in being unafraid to be open to the healing presence, no matter what one might be or might have done."

Saturday Surfin'

Worth my attention...

Doin' it wrong

Do you ever feel like doing the exact opposite of something you have been told to do?
Mom says "clean your room," you say, "later."
Dad says, "mow the lawn," you say, "never."
School says, "turn it in," you say, "if I do, you'll win."

Question: What is it that pulls us to disobedience?

Jesus says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

Answer: lovelessness

Skiing at Grouse Mountain

Here are some pictures from our afternoon:

silhouetted at Grouse


Mrs. Snow White


The White Family


We love skiing!!