The Big Hike

I went on a big hike with my friend, Cory Buckman, on Saturday. The intention was to do two peaks in one day, both of them fourteeners. For those of you outside of Colorado a fourteener is a mountain that has a 14,000 summit. Our selection was Grays Peak and Torey's Peak. I was up there twice before and knew it would be an arduous hike.

The hike turned out to be longer than we thought it would be as we had to park three-quarters of a mile downhill from the trail head. I'm not sure what happened since 5 years ago, but I think I lost a little spring in my step. One thing I do know is that my knees hurt a lot more this time up than last time. They hurt even worse on the way down. Not too bad, though. Only like knives stabbing me under the knee cap on each step. But all-in-all it was a great experience.

One thing we failed to do was make the final push up to the summit. For me it was a question of whether I would walk down the mountain. Gotta get those knees fixed before Obama says I'm too old.

Cory was like an old horse headed for the barn after a hard day's work. The closer we got to the truck the faster he walked. I hobbled along pretty good keeping up with him. After my next cortisone shot I think I will try it again.

Also, today I am in Estes Park, Colorado. This is a beautiful place and a nice place to get out of the heat. I'm in the loft of a cute little coffee and stationary shop looking out the window at the mountains. I have the entire loft all to myself, which is good for me, but bad for business. They also have the nicest easy listening music playing. I don't have the photos ready of the hike, but I have attched some photos of Estes Park. I

New Hope

In the midst of the worst trials of life there is hope and refreshing in reading about the birth of Christ. The Gospel of Luke contains my favorite account of this. This account tells of the conception and birth of John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth. John was born to Elizabeth and Zachariah. And this was when they had no hope for children because they were in their old age. Yet, against all hope Elizabeth conceived and gave birth to a son who would be the forerunner to Jesus Christ. Luke records Elizabeth's song which is a song of joy. Then, later, Zachariah's song.

But Mary, the mother of Jesus, also had a song of her own, rejoicing that she would be the mother of her Savior.

When I was dealing with a very heavy burden today, I read this account of the conception and birth of Christ. In this account I found hope and peace. I was reminded once again that no matter how badly I have screwed things up and how badly I hurt, that a Savior was born for me, and that I can bow at the cross and find cleansing and relief. So even in my darkest moments I can find a song to sing.

The Package

I remember getting a pretty package for my birthday when I was a child. It sat on our kitchen counter for a couple of days prior to my birthday, and I wondered all the time what was in the package. I so hoped it was something I wanted. My mind wandered thinking about the good things it could be. I asked my mother what was in it. She said that I would have to find out when I opened it. In reality, I had no idea what was in the package.

With the health care bill that was passed earlier this year, Nancy Pelosy said that we would have to pass the bill, then find out what is in it later. That seems kind of reckless, but it did pass and we as Americans are stuck with it and we will find out what it in it as time goes on. What we do know is in it is more government spending and taxation.

Now we are faced with the same situation with the finance reform bill. Gibbs told us that we need this and we should pass it an find out what is in it later. Once again it was passed and we will definitely find out.

It seems to me that we have a bunch of blind men leading our nation as of late. If you and I operated the way Congress does we'd go bankrupt in no time. Oh, wait! I think this is exactly what is happening to our government. Our leaders are leading us into bankruptcy. We just blindly follow so long as we think there is something in it for us. And there is.... hard times. Harder times than we have had.

But once hard times come, The President, Congress, and the Senate will absolve themselves of all responsibility and will somehow blame it on the banks, or the insurance companies once again. I, for one, no longer trust the president, or congress to make decisions that are best for me or for my country. They have proven themselves as a bunch of charlatans, serving only themselves.

They want you to drive a Prius while they ride in a limo. They want to restrict your healthcare, but not their own. Your retirement fund decays and disappears while their government pension is guaranteed. You get the picture.

They want businesses to hire while making it harder to do so. An example of this is that if I hire someone I must pay half of his social security. But at the same time I must pay all of my own. So for two people I must pay the bill for one and a half. Therefore, why should I hire? We penalize those providing the jobs then wonder why they don't create jobs.

What's in this new financial bill. Once we know, we won't like it. But we will definitely find out as it unravels.

Signs of the End

In Mark 13 Jesus' disciples were concerned about when the end would take place. Jesus did not give them a direct answer because, as He said, "the angels of heaven, not even the Son of man knows the exact time." But he gave then signs of the end.

The beginning signs included: false prophets and false christs arising. Let's not mistake these as the modern day evangelists that have fallen. As far as I know, none of the claimed to be Christ, and their message was not false.... they simply failed. The false prophets will be those who present another way that contradicts God's word and the false christs will be those who actually claim to be the way. At any rate, they are deceivers. They entice men to go the wrong way, which seals their doom because they believe a lie.

Also, in the beginning nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be wars and rumors of wars. This has been happening throughout the history of man.

Then there will be earthquakes and famines. These have also been with mankind for a long time.

Then Jesus changed things up to issues that will be very close to His coming. This includes persecution for the gospel, betrayal of children and parents, and being arrested. This, of course has been happening since Jesus first came on the scene. But as of late there has also been a renewed trend of persecution against Christians. In many nations you can be arrested and imprisoned for being a Christians, and in some cases put to death. I know of not other religion that bears this consequence. In the last 5 or 6 decades we have seen a shifting away from Christianity in the United States. It seems to be politically correct to view Christians as bad people, but not muslims. More persecution is on the way.

Then immediately before the end time the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give it's light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. I don't know exactly what all that means. I do know that without the sun the planet would be frozen. I tend to believe that with wars, volcanic activity, other pollution it may cause the sun to become a haze, the light of the moon and the stars may not be able to be seen. The earth will be in political chaos as wars are being fought. It is in this atmosphere that the "Son of man will come in His glory." At that time He will gather His own together. After that, God's judgement will fall on the earth.

Withered

In Mark 11:12-14 Jesus cursed a fig tree. He was on His way out of town, was hungry, saw a fig tree, and went to the tree for fruit. There was no fruit.... only leaves. He said, "may no one ever eat fruit from you again." The next day as they walked past the same tree, they saw that it was withered from the roots up.

The lesson is, Jesus expects everything to bear fruit after it's own kind. A peach tree should bear peaches, a tomato plant should bear tomatoes, cattle should bear cattle, and so forth. This also applies to Christians. As Christians we should bear fruit. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us what kind of fruit. Bearing fruit makes the Christian life interesting, worth while, and profitable for both us and the kingdom of God.

Each of us should ask ourselves what kind of fruit we will be bearing today. Bearing the fruit of the Spirit will cause us to be happy and prosper. Bearing no fruit at all will cause our souls to wither.

Stock Picks for July

British Petroleum has done a number on the oil industry, and so have the problems in Europe. Of, course, President Obama's moratorium on deep water drilling has had a big part in contributing to the sagging oil industry. Many of these oil stocks are down as much as 40-50 percent over the past couple of months. Thousands of oil workers are out of work because of the moratorium. Pretty sad, isn't it?

However, what our president and other environmentalists fail to understand is that our country and our world is still dependent on oil. It is still one of the cheapest and most readily available energy products.... and our world is still set up that way. All of that leads to this: There is going to be an oil shortage, which will then push up the price of crude oil. The result of this is that oil companies will once again see increased profits..... but this time with less production. Oil stocks are poised to go up. Want to make some money? That's where I would invest..... am invested.

Of course, if you want to buy the best and most dependable stock, you can always buy Apple (AAPL) at nearly $275 per share.

Knock Starbucks if you want to. That's the other black gold (black coffee). Or you can buy some Starbucks stock, buy a cup of coffee, and watch your stock go up. They are recovering nicely and most Starbucks shops I go into are constantly busy. And I visit a lot of Starbucks. If people have to choose between coffee and food.... they must be choosing coffee.

Who Did They See?

"Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them, except Jesus." Mark 9:8.

Jesus took Peter, James and John up a hight mountain. There He was transfigured before them and his clothes glowed whiter than any bleach could get them. While on the mountain they saw Jesus talking with the prophet Elijah and Moses. Then a mist came over the mountain and when it cleared they saw only Jesus.

The message here is that we often get our eyes on the wrong thing. Elijah was a great prophet and Moses was a great leader. When there are great prophet and leaders there is a tendency to promote these people to an almost godlike position. But the Bible makes it clear that Jesus Christ should be the focus of Christians everywhere. Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind of fire. Moses, God's servant is dead. But Jesus Christ lives forever more.

When we take our eyes off Jesus we can also get off-track very easily. And while we are going off-track we can rationalize what we are doing. At these times we are living in the mist that not only hides Moses, and Elijah from us (or anyone else we may have set on a pedestal) but the mist also hides Jesus and his will for our lives from us. Once we re-focus our eyes on Jesus the mist will clear and we will once again see Jesus only as our Lord, and His Word as the guide for our lives.

Once we get re-focused we can then see how far off track we have been. This calls for sorrow and rejoicing. We have sorrow over our wayward ways and the damage and hurt that it causes. But we have joy that we have been restored. There is a bittersweetness here. But this is better than only bitterness that comes with staying with our waywardness.

"Turn you eyes upon Jesus,

Look full on His wonderful face,

And the things of the earth with grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace."

Who did they see on the Mount of Transfiguration? In the end it was only Jesus. Who is it you see guiding your life?