Mountains

Gratitude for the Eyes of Friends

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments 
 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
Romans 1:8 NIV

I love photography of, mountains, rivers and open prairies., but due to the aches and pains of advancing age I cannot get out into the wilds of nature these days. But we have been blessed by what the eyes of our friends have seen, in their many spectacular photos. Neither of them writes much, and their favorite reading is usually about the campsites at the next national park they plan to visit. But when they take shots from the ridge of a mountain range or zoom in on a wolf crossing their trail it generates a special artwork that communicates something more than any words. Today’s brief post is simply an expression of my gratitude for them generously sharing the special moments that they have experienced. I hope you will enjoy this montage of the last few years of their adventures.

He Wrote in the Dust

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

Lately I’ve been wishing we had a quiet cottage in the woods, or a cabin by the lake. I wanted to get away, clear my heart and mind and have my own personal religious retreat. But then I recalled, there aren’t any quiet woods nearby and we can’t afford a cabin on a lake. (They have too many mosquitos and alligators around here in Florida anyway!) Then I pulled out my Strong’s Concordance and began looking up the word refuge, and the first verse I came across was, “The Eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27 a

The thought of those everlasting…never tiring… never failing arms, gave me hope because God was already with me and with our family. In the middle of our busyness and bills, right in the center of the confusion, the demands, the doctor’s appointments and silly arguments. He is our religious retreat, and underneath us all are His eternal arms.

Next, I came to Psalm 46:1 and found that God is our refuge and strength, not in quiet times, not in successful moments, but when we are in trouble, facing questions, and feeling as if we can’t go on. God isn’t surprised by our struggles, nor shocked by the events that swirl around us. Though evil is in our world, its destructiveness is never our Lord’s will, but God uses even the terrible things that happen to work His plan. He opens for us a doorway into His refuge, so that when the enemy comes in like a flood, that we can find that God Himself is our refuge: safer than any cabin in the woods and more wonderful than any lake house ever was. He is our friend sticking closer than a brother and a Father who holds us in HIs arms in times of trouble!


Progress in High Places

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments 
God the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:19 ESV

I haven’t been posting much because we have been traveling the country, visiting our family over the last two weeks. Seeing our sons, our grandchildren and in-laws has been a wonderful though exhausting experience. When I stopped into Walmart to get the oil changed yesterday, I learned that we had logged 4,300 miles, but it has been worth it to see our granddaughter at ballet practice, our grandson holding a baby goat and our boys who are now grown men! In spending a birthday with one of our older grandsons, he chose among the activities of his special day, to watch his cousin’s speech class presentation day. As the teacher opened the session, she began with a quote that really stuck with me. “Some people say that practice makes perfect. But practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes progress!”

How often in our Christian walk do we beat ourselves up, or stress out over mistakes and feel like quitting, because we have not attained that “Perfect” status that we hoped for? That was certainly the situation which the prophet Habakkuk faced in today’s verse. He had done his best praying, preaching and setting a good example for the people that God had called him to serve. Yet most folks ignored his advice and had fallen deeply into the sins of idol worship and sexual immorality. The armies of the Babylonian empire were now destroying his nation, burning the temple and putting an end to the kingdom that God had once given to King David. Things couldn’t have looked worse. Habakkuk saw that no matter how hard he tried or how persuasively he preached, that his version of success was not to be, and yet God gave him hope. In his darkest moments, Habakkuk discovered that God was still his strength and God was still in charge of the spiritual progress that he was going to make. No matter the cliffs of impossible situations, hopeless battles or dark days ahead, God would give him feet as sure footed as a wild deer. God showed him that even in those places he could walk and not fall. God is also our hope, our refuge and our strength in the bleak circumstances that sometimes surround us, our families and our nation. We can have hope because our God doesn’t demand our perfect response to terrible circumstances or perplexing people. Instead, He takes weaklings like you and me and gives us strength. He makes us as sure-footed and graceful as a deer so that we can make progress day by day as we walk with Him up onto the highest places of all!