Church – Page 4 – Wanderings

Mount Hermon Fix

joe August 19, 2008 Church, Faith, Family

Wow! What a week we had at Mount Hermon this year. Spent time at Family Camp where Bill Butterworth and Chip Ingram were the main speakers. You can "Yahoo" or "Google" the names.

Had a super time, even thought this was not the "Homeschoolers Family Camp", there were many of us present. This turned out to be the largest camp Mount Hermon had all summer. What thrills and excitement awaited us!

There were two new rope/climbing courses on the grounds. The Canopy Course lets you traverse the redwoods on zip lines high above the ground – like through the tops of the redwoods. the Canyon Course was kinda just that – zip lines across the canyon. Due to the rains during the winter, the previous rope course had been damaged, and so they rebuilt. We did not go on either this year, but people who did had words of praise for Mount Hermon.

In addition to the great food, fantastic music Jack Pearson and Jesse Butterworth, there were just a multitude of things to do and see. Time to sit and share – build friendships and discover people from your past.

It happened to me on "Train Day". There we were sitting at a table on the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. This guy from the next table (white hair like me) came over and set with us and we started talking. He was from Sun City, AZ. I asked him if he happened to know someone (a retired pastor) who had moved there, and got a negative response (OK, so it was not someone like Billy Graham that everybody knows). We kept talking, and he said he grew up in San Francisco. After looking at his name (Gordon Bostrom), my brain put two and two together – asked some questions…turns out his dad had been Prayer Chairman for the first (1958) Billy Graham Crusade in San Francisco. I was heavily involved in a youth organization (Christian Endeavor) that was active in many Northern California churches.

What a connection…across all these miles and years. What an encouragement he was to me about things that had happened in my life. Needless to say, we exchanged email addresses, but Gordon said later "I'm a phone kind of guy, could I have your phone number so I can call you?"

I'm thankful for the week we spent – thankful for the ministry of Bill and Chip (check out their podcasts or talk to us) and ever grateful for Gordon's words.

Saturday Already

joe May 17, 2008 Church, General

Yup. That it is, and I’m still trying to catch up. Reminds me of the little rabbit in “Alice In Wonderland” – “I’m late, I’m late for a very important date.” At least that’s part of what I get to feeling. But this heat is not when I want to be running around working up a sweat or stress level.

Glad it finally cooled down last night, but can’t wait for the heat wave to end. I kinda melt in the heat – like something just sucks all the energy out of me. Then once the energy is gone, it takes a while to get back up to speed.

Having a hard time finishing a book that I have been reading for the past two months (actually have read two or three other fiction books while trying to finish it). The “problem child” is a book on the Reformation and Protestantism for “Dummies”. I’m no “dummy”, but this is like a college history book. Not althgether boring, but very much full of information.

Jumps from country to country, and by so doing, is not linear (world-wide). Have decided that after I finish the book, it will have to be re-read just so I can put the “world” back together. Amazing stuff about the Reformations (yes, it seems that there was more than one) and world history. Never tied all those British, French, German, Italian, etc. royal families to church history before now. Even in college, the kings and queens were “secular” and they were just battles or wars.

Don’t ask me who the kings and queens were, ’cause to me that’s not the important thing. What I am seeing now is that how they viewed the “Word” is/was what’s important. Thanks to some of them, we have “IT” to read. Reading “IT” has made a major difference in how people have lived and died.

It was as a result of so many of those early “Reformers” that we have a country like America. From those reformation roots sprang “Religious Freedom” and the anti-slavery movement. We live in a land where you and I can write/tell others what we believe about God and not die for it. We can live our lives so that others see a difference, without the fear that we will be punished (even killed) because we believe the Word. Freedom costs everybody something – how much are you willing to pay?

Lost and Not Found

joe May 8, 2008 Church, Faith, General

Funny how something like a Bible can disappear. Mine did on Sunday. Had it with my tool bag and someother things that I carried out of the gym, but have looked for it off and on, and no where to be found. Good thing we live in a country where owning a Bible is not a crime. Just pulled out another one and started reading.

Finished James, and spend some time thinking about where to start. Felt that it was time to read through 1, 2 and 3 John again. Enough meat to kick start any day.

Thought about re-reading Philippians, but don’t want to mess with anyone who is going through Bay Hills U. That was a pretty great class. The class that I was with spent three nights going through the course. Most of it sunk in, but some is still getting absorbed. The hardest thing (for me anyhow) was trying to memorize verses that my brain has in another language (King James). Trying to say the three memory verses in NIV was like…well, I really can’t describe it well.

Let’s just say that getting through the class was easy and hard at the same time. I enjoyed going over the basics (again) and getting to meet some new people. Sometimes, I think it’s a good thing to look again at what your beliefs are built upon and how those beliefs ought to be lived out.

Rambling on here and havent’ said a thing about I John 1. More on that next time. For now, just remember that a house is built upon a foundation, not a roof.