Sharing Life and Christ

God is good. These pictures are a few that show how amazing the climb up Mt. Fuji was this year. God blessed us with great weather and a perfect sunrise from 12,000 + feet above sea level! Station 8 picture. My climbing partner, Mike, at the top. My favorite This is a sunrise picture. This was the sunrise we saw from the top. The sun. The 5 at the top. It took us about 4 hours. The 2 year running picture pointing away from the climbing route. :)

How Great Is Your Love by Mercy Me How great is Your love? So much higher than the Heavens With faithfulness that reaches the sky. Have you ever stopped to consider the faithfulness of God? Have you ever really considered it? I’m almost at a loss for words (which is saying a great deal for me!) right now by considering how faithful God is. Faithful in His love for me. Faithful in His protection of me and my loved ones. Faithful in keeping all of His promises. James 1:17 tells us this: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. How faithful is our God? So faithful that there is not even imperceptible change of His character. He is constant. Constant in every way. I dare you to challenge the immutable quality of God. You will fail to find even one instance of God ceasing to be unchanged. Within God’s faithfulness lie so many splendid things. He hears us when we call out...

'All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. ' And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:24,25 In the first chapter, Peter begins by saying “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” and goes on to speak of our great salvation, inheritance, and the faith that will make our hope a reality. He encourages his readers to hold fast to the grace that God has given freely to them, abstaining from the passions of their former lives. He calls his readers to be holy just as God Himself is holy. Peter also speaks of the precious blood of Christ as that from a lamb without spot or blemish, the perfect and all encompassing sacrifice; once for all. Then we come to the context in which the above verse lies. Peter says in verse 23 that we are now of an imperishable seed through the living and in dwelt Word of God. He exhorts them to live...

As I begin to write this, I don't know exactly the direction that this post will go. I've just been thinking a lot today about conviction and all of the lies that we so easily believe that cloud or destroy the conviction and leading of the Holy Spirit. As men and women who are more than conquerors, we should not be living defeated lives based on lies. What lies do we allow into our lives that detract from the fullness of life that Jesus Christ offers freely to us? It is my prayer that God would continue to reveal to me the areas of my life that are not surrendered to him. Before I go any further I'd like to add this disclaimer: My focus is on running towards Jesus Christ. Forgetting what lies behind and pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the standard. He is the only one worthy and righteous. Even though we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, we need to continue to pursue the humble, ob...

In 1 Corinthians Chapter 15 , Paul is writing to the Church of Corinth about the resurrection from the dead. There is doubt among Paul’s audience as to whether there is even a resurrection. After telling of the over 500 eye witnesses who saw the risen Lord (v. 5-8) and thus defending the resurrection of Christ, Paul begins to write of the Christian’s resurrection from the dead. His first aim is to show how ludicrous it is to believe that there is no resurrection from the dead. If there is no resurrection, Paul writes, then even Jesus Himself was not raised. And if Jesus was not raised, then the Apostle’s preaching and the Corinthians’ faith have been in vain. Something really struck me as I was reading. Verse 17 says: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. You are still in your sins. He doesn’t say, “if Christ wasn’t raised, you need to try plan B.” He says “your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” If Jesus Christ w...

In 1 Corinthians Chapter 15, Paul is reminding the Corinthian church of the Gospel message that he first brought to them. He is speaking of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He then tells of Christ’s numerous appearances to the Apostles, last of which was Paul himself. Paul’s words in verse 10 really struck me today as I was reading and I felt compelled to write about what he says. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10 God’s grace doesn’t just save us ( Ephesians 2:8,9 ). God’s grace apportions gifts ( Ephesians 4:7 ), strengthens us ( Hebrews 13:9 ), and is sufficient for all we need ( 2 Corinthians 12:9 ). Paul gives a wonderful picture of what God’s grace means to him. It has made him the man that he is. When I think about this, it becomes a very impacting statement. God’s grace has made me ...

It’s quite a daunting task to even consider writing about love as one who demonstrates time and again that he all too often falls short of loving God and loving others. I trust, though, that I am in good company with everyone who is reading this. With that being said, God has put it on my heart to write about the most excellent way and our preeminent pursuit of love, which is only possible through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’d like to start with what is probably the most recognized verse in Scripture: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life . John 3:16 It would be easy to go off on a tangent and never return when thinking of how deeply God loves us evidenced by gazing at the Cross. Jesus (aka God) willingly surrendered some of His divine attributes to take on the form of a human and become the payment for our sins. Do you ever stop and really consider the immensity of this verse? There is...