Removing the Dead Wood from Our Lives

We are messy when we start.

I have been removing dead trees from our land for about a month or so and it strikes me this job is similar to the work Christians must tackle in their own lives.

We had some dead, rotting trees standing, and in some cases, laying on or beside healthy, green, growing trees. When the two exist together it is messy, ugly, and, frankly, a bit dangerous. Rodents or snakes could live in the mess laying on the ground. Winds can cause trees to fall over and harm others. It is eyesore for the neighbors. In short the dead must be removed for the healthy to continue to grow and to improve the aesthetics.

Similarly, when we come to Christ, we have sin littering our lives which must be aggressively removed if we are to grow and become healthy Christians. Paul makes this point in Colossians 3. In this part of his epistle to the church in Colossia, Paul first instructs his readers to "set your mind on the things above" (3:2). He then charges believers to put to death our worldly nature (3:5). He lists a sampling of what the worldly nature looks like (I will link to the Greek word used): immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed - greed is like idolatry. These are what the old, worldly nature produces and they should be like dead trees in our lives. They need to be removed.



Making progress

Paul goes on to say that we are to throw away the old self (3:9). He characterized the old man with this list: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech. He also includes a ban on lying to one another. These all, and anything else produced from the old nature must be removed because through Christ, we have put on the new man. When we do not remove the old and dead from our lives, our lives become messy, ugly, and frankly, a bit dangerous.

This is not work we must do ourselves. In fact, it is impossible for us to do this work ourselves. It begins when we have made alive through Christ (3:1) and the work continues as we are renewed the more and more we know Christ (3:10). In short, it is the work of Christ on the cross that allows us to be able to remove the old nature from our lives.

Like removing the trees, removing sin from our lives is hard work. It may take some time to get the job done in the manner it needs done. It may be costly but it is worth the cost. You may need the help of a friend to get to the job done. The point is that we must remove the sin from our lives no matter what. The ugly death in our lives must be removed so we can walk as Christ intended us to walk.

Matthew Henry challenged his readers to remove sins from lives. He said,

Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them ... It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us.

Finished for now

These were the thought running through my head as I was cleaning out these old trees. More specifically, I began to wonder what were the dead trees in my life that are not only cluttering up my life, but are allowing death to remain in the new life Christ has given me. I would ask you the same question. What dead trees from your old worldly nature is still hanging around in your life making your life messy, ugly, and dangerous? Are you willing to allow Christ to work in you and are you willing to do the hard work to remove these sins from your life?

If you are struggling in an area and would like some help, please comment below or email and I will be willing to pray with you and help you with your questions.

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One. Weird. Day

Confession. I did not go to church yesterday. Not really. Instead, I had the weirdest...day...ever. Let me start from the beginning. My wife and I had some work we HAD to get done around the house and we were not going to be able to do it anytime in the next three weeks or more. We attempted to do the work on Saturday but, without going into a myriad of details, that was not successful...at all.

Sunday was a warm day and I viewed it as "having an ox in the ditch" and proceeded to take care of the work. So, we woke up and watch the worship service of the church we have been attending (they have a Livestream of their worship for those who cannot make it. I realize this is no substitute for the gathering together of God's people for worship and encouragement but for this day, it helped us). After the service, we began our work.

We had several dead trees on our property by the road and a couple had fallen over with some strong winds (see the image - it is pretty blurry. The red circle indicates the problems we had). We had one tree fall half-way down, and this winter another one fell completely down (you cannot see it in the picture). In short, we needed to clean these up so we did. As the first picture and the picture below shows, these trees were completely dead and I was able to push over the last standing tree.

So, we got that completed and made a nice pile of firewood for someone (see below). By the way, that is my daughter's dog, Scout, who must be everywhere I am helping me however he can. He is a good boy!

After completing our job, we went to lunch at our local diner. While there, we encountered a family whose vehicle had broken down - they had an "an ox in the ditch" also! So, in the course of our discussion with them, I offered to drive them home.

When I got home from giving them a lift, my wife was doing some laundry. We began to smell a strong bleach smell and she was not doing a load of whites. We looked in the laundry room, and the bleach had tipped over and spilled on to some wool socks. For those of us who forgot everything we learned about chemistry, bleach mixed with wool creates a chemical reaction called a neutralization reaction. Not only did the bleach-soaked wool socks get incredibly hot, it also created an almost unbearable stench in the house. We opened the windows and left the house for a little bit, making sure the dogs were in the garage so they would be safe.

There were a couple other events yesterday that I won't talk about that made the day just one of those strange days that seem to stand out. Nothing bad happened but just enough unique events to make one wonder what God was up to yesterday.

 

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Another Funeral, Another Road Trip, and Unique Trains

I attended another funeral today in Sterling. Since the lady who passed was the wife of a fellow pastor in my Association, I went to support him. Sterling is only about an hour from my house, so it was nothing close to my 970 mile trip in my previous post. However, whenever I go on some sort of road trip, I have been trying to take my camera because I always see something I want to remember or something unique. This road trip did not disappoint.

When I got close to home, I saw some very unique equipment running along the railroad route which runs through Wiggins. I am not exactly sure what they are but I can guess on a couple. If you know what these are, please post so we all can be educated.

First on the track, I saw this contraption. It was so long, I had to take it with a panoramic setting (with all the following, click image for larger picture).

 

Ok. So this fascinates me. My guess, in the context of the following pictures of vehicles, this digs up the rocks found between the tracks so it will expose the ties. It looks like these rocks are maybe shuttled up a conveyer and then through another conveyer to a container? I am not sure. Maybe the rocks are getting cleaned and the residue is going to the container? I have absolutely no clue but I am putting my money on that this may be a machine to remove the rocks from the between the rails. This is due to the next piece of equipment.

 

 

 

The key to this piece is the orange apparatus located on the front end. This is obviously a Dynamic Tamping Express. I know this because...

 

 

it says it right on the side of the machine. It is my guess that this interesting looking engine straightens out the ties and make sure they are securely in place. Perhaps it just beats the nails, or whatever holds the ties in place, so they are secure. I liked watching this process. Here is a video.

 

 

This looks like some sort of sci-fi, robot, construction device or something. I love the way it moves. Finally, following these two distinctive pieces of machinery was a final mystery.

 

 

 To me, this mechanism looks like it takes the rocks and moves them back on to the ties. I have a video of this process as well.

 

 

 I have no idea what these are (Brian, if by any chance you read my blog, let me know what these are!) and I guess that is what interested me in these. I am not a train enthusiast, per se, but trains are an integral part of our country's economy. It seems like these strange looking pieces of technology help those trains keep running. Or not...I have no idea.

 

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A Funeral, Swink, and a Sleeping Indian

I recently took a 970 mile road trip which covered three corners of Colorado. I left on a Friday morning to go to La Junta to attend the funeral of my friend's father. I did not know him but I wanted to support my friend. His father was a church planter, a pastor, and essentially a missionary in Eastern Colorado. It was encouraging to hear everyone speak of how he led through prayer, raised up leaders, and served the Lord all his life.

Because the next day I needed to be in Creede, I did not go home but instead went to my in-laws in Colorado Springs. So, on my way home, I went through Swink (click image for larger picture). I took a picture of the town's water tower with my phone on the fly so it is not the best picture but OK. When I was in La Junta, I stopped at the local Wal-Mart and picked up a Swink Lions shirt (click here for my post about high school mascots). I also stopped in Rocky Ford and picked up Meloneer shirts for my wife, my daughter, and myself. It was good to drive through some of these small towns I have not really heard of before.

Saturday, I headed out for Creede, as I was to preach there on Sunday morning. It is about 4 hours from Colorado Springs but I was going to take my time. It was a beautiful trip. If you have not been to the Southwestern part of Colorado, I would encourage you to take some time and visit.

The church had me stay with a very nice couple. They had a lovely cabin (click image for larger picture). They had a fantastic view from their front porch. The husband pointed to a formation of mountains and said, "They call that 'The Sleeping Indian'. Can you see it?" I indeed could see why they called it that. Here is a picture of that formation (click image for larger picture).

I preached Sunday morning for a great group of folks from all over the country. They all come and spend the summer in Creede and then go home for the winter. It was a good group of folks. They were very receptive to the message and were very gracious and hospitable. I also preached Sunday evening for them. There was a good group who came back for Sunday Evening worship, which I thought was impressive. Here is the church building (click image for larger picture).

After church the husband drove me around the area for a little bit. He showed me some of the sites and gave me some great history of the area. He was quite the historian and knew the place very well. The leaves were not quite their brilliant color they would normally be this time of year, but they were still an amazing display of God's creativity. Here are a couple of pictures of the landscape (click images for larger pictures).

I believe this is the San Luis Valley. The river is the Rio Grande, whose head waters are close to Creed. It flows from here all the way down to form the border between Mexico and Texas. This was such an expansive view, showing the river and the valley, the hills and the mountains, I had to stop and take a shot.

I took this shot down one of the roads we were traveling. I am pretty sure the mountain is Bristol Head Mountain. I liked this picture of the road, the trees and the mountain in the back ground.

I traveled back to Colorado Springs that Sunday evening, and the back home the following day. All in all, I drove 970 miles in 4 days to 3 corners of this beautiful state I live in. I had the privilege of attending the funeral of a fine man of God, and was able not only able to enjoy some very scenic views, but was able to proclaim the Word of the One who created all of this and allows us to enjoy it. It was a good weekend!

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How I Spent My Tuesday and Wednesday

 

I live in beautiful state. One of the great benefits of living in Colorado is that when the state convention has conferences, I get to travel to various parts of the state and enjoy the beauty our God has created. This last Tuesday and Wednesday I attended a conference in Buena Vista, Colorado. As I drove there, I had to stop and take a picture of this scene (you HAVE to click the image for a larger picture - really...). Truly, what a beautiful vista this was. This picture was taken on Wilkerson Pass on Highway 24 about 45 miles east of Buena Vista. Just a benefit of going to the conference.

I have a little Fujifilm Finepix S1500 (I did not pay what it sells for on Amazon - I got it much cheaper) and it try to take it wherever I go in case I need to take a picture. One day I might join the 21st century and get an iPhone or a Galaxy or something like that and take pictures with my phone, but there is something satisfying about lining up a shot in your view finder, trying to capture the Rule of Thirds, and producing a picture like the one above (the picture above was captured using the panoramic option on the camera but I still tried to use the Rule of Thirds).

The conference was really good but the drive there and back was absolutely beautiful. In fact, I took the "Top of the Rockies National Scenic and Historic Byway" on the way home. Thank you, Yahweh, for the magnificence of Your creation!

Let me know what you think of the picture. Make sure you view it at 100%.

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Screens and Grates

I have not posted anything new since I have gotten back from Honduras because I have been completing several "honey-do's" around the house. Now that my schedule is a little more open than in the past (long story), I have some time to get some of the items off the list that have been there for over four years.

First, I repaired every window screen on our house. You may not be able to see it in the picture (click picture for larger image) but almost every screen on our house had a hole in it. We have intended to repair these for several years and I have not had the time. We have twenty-nine screens in total. While it was not a hard job, it did take a lot of time. However, I took it at my own pace and just enjoyed the time. My daughter helped me with the last few.


Second, I put covers on our basement window wells (technically, they are grates but they are used to keep things and people from falling down the hole. I do not have a before shot, but here are the completed pictures of the grate and the window wall (click pictures for larger images). We have four window wells, each about six foot deep. I cleaned out the bottom of the window well, put some landscaping fabric down, and poured some river rock into it. Then, I installed the ladder and the security cable. These are so if there is a fire, a person can climb out the window, pull the safety release, climb the ladder, lift the grate, and get away from the house.

Again, none of these were tough but they took some time, especially at the speed I was working. I will say that lugging 16 bags of river rock down the stairs was quite an aerobic workout, but it was good.

In between these jobs, I had to repair my "weed wacker" by replacing the broken trigger mechanism. I also changed the blades on my John Deere riding mower. We have had so much rain lately it seems like I am mowing all the time.

I am sure there is a sermon illustration about screens and/or grates but just cannot think of it right now. Maybe I will post one later.

Anyway, my point is that I have been too busy to post since getting home but hope to post some thoughts soon. Just thought I would share my blood, sweat, and tears.

One more thing, check out my new visitor cluster map on the sidebar. I like the rotating globe. Let me know what you think about it.

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Pictures from Honduras #6

For my final posting of pictures from my mission trip, I thought I would post some of the fun parts of the trip. These are some of unique things that I saw or did and some of the fun people I met (Click pictures for larger images):

The two ladies in this picture with me were the translators for the group from Houston. Donya is on the left and Ruth is on the right. They never really translated for me officially, although Ruth translated for me the first day while in the car and was my navigator (more on that below when I talk about my driving experience in Honduras). They both understood English very well and did a great job translating for the group as they did evangelism.

 

Ruth was a goofball, as you can see here. And she had A LOT of hair!

 

When the group went to the T.V. station to perform their dramas live on the air, Pastor Moises wanted to interview me. So he took a few minutes and asked me some questions about what I was doing in Olanchito. I think he thought I was employed by World Hope and right before we started the interview I corrected him. Anyway, I guess my 15 minutes of fame is that I was on Honduran T.V. very briefly.

 

We got a little bit of rain while I was there. This is the road outside Pastor Juan's church were we had the Bible Institute. I thought Pastor Jorge's van (the silver one sitting there) was going to get washed away when we started driving down the little river.

 

I enjoyed meeting the pastors at the Institute. Here are some who agreed to pose for a picture with me (actually, Pastor Jorge really did not give them a choice). They are all very busy pastors. The right-most pastor in the striped shirt had to leave the Institute for few minutes to make sure he paid his workers who were working his farm while he was learning about doctrine. The pastor immediately left of me (while looking at the picture) came from 6 hours away to go to the Institute. Again, it was a privilege to help equip these committed ministers to serve their congregations.

We had to stop on the highway because the cattle had to cross the road. The little boy came out with his flag and began waving it, all the cars stopped, and the cattle crossed the road. The cattle have the right-of-way I was told.

 

We saw some kids trying to cool off in the river we crossed. I cannot imagine this water was at all safe to be in but they were having a ball anyway.

 

So here is the vehicle I drove the first day in Honduras (Click link so read about that). It is a Hyundai H-1000 van-truck-thing. This is the van part... 

 

This is the truck part. The back was LOADED with our luggage (much more than what is shown) and because the speedometer was in KPH I had no idea how fast I was going nor did I know how fast I was supposed to be going because there were no speed limit signs. I had the pedal down as far as it was going and they still said I was driving too slow. It was fine with me that they did not let me drive again while there.

 

This would have been more my speed. There were a lot of horses, horse and carts, motorcycles, bikes, and various modes of transportation.

Sunday after the worship service, Pastor Moises gave each of the group a certificate from his church and the Baptist Convention of Honduras thanking us for our service there. It was a very kind gesture. I will be hanging it somewhere prominent. 

Here is the group I spent the week with - except the lady in the green shirt on the left. She ran the Hotel Beverly. We took this picture so that we could hand our picture in their lobby. So, if you are ever at the Hotel Beverly, look for our picture!

 

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures from my mission trip to Honduras. It was a good trip. I am praying about going again next year. The main hindrance is the money to go (it is about $2000 per trip). World Hope Bible Institute could use more and more pastors with a Master's Degree from an accredited seminary to go on trips like these. There is such a great need to help these pastors so they can train indigenous leaders. They have these Bible Institutes not only in Honduras but all over the world.

 

World Hope also sends church groups all over the world to do a variety of mission trips. Please pray about the possibility of your involvement or the involvement of your church. Contact WHMI for more information.

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Pictures from Honduras #5

Honduras is a beautiful place and while we were there we had very nice accommodations. I love the scenery while we traveled and the hotels where we stayed were comfortable and friendly. Here are some pictures about the places in Honduras (click the pictures for larger images):

The first hotel we stayed at and the last one we stayed at was the La Qunita in La Ceiba. It is nice hotel with a restaurant and a pool. I did not take advantage of the pool - I figure if you cannot drink the water it may not be good to plunge oneself in it. Showering was as much as I would get in the water. However, the rooms were very nice and the staff were very friendly and bi-lingual, which was a great help, at least for me.

This was the view from the door of my room. There was a nice courtyard where I was able to rest on our free day (see previous posts). It was quite beautiful.

 

We stayed at the Hotel Beverly while in Olanchito. This, too, was a nice hotel, but not as nice as the La Quinta. But it was clean, each room had A.C. and there was an attached restaurant that would take our requests for what we wanted to eat the following day. If you are in Olanchito and go to the restaurant, look for my name on the wall. Also, look for our picture hanging in the lobby!

 

I am always impressed on how clean Honduras is. You always see someone sweeping or cleaning up the area. Here is one of the streets in Olanchito. I was a nice scene showing the street, the mountains in the background, and the rain clouds coming in. I am not sure the picture captures it.

 

Buildings are close in Olanchito. I took a panoramic picture of the church and the houses next door. The truck is a small truck, not even a midsized truck. The house on the right is occupied by Pastor Juan's daughter, Myra, and her husband, Daniel. I had the honor of going to their house one evening and chatting with them for a little bit. I prayed for them before we left over a specific need. Anyway, it is close quarters in Honduras.

The scenery is beautiful with the mountains covered in different kinds of trees. Everything is very green from the daily rains (at least it rained every day I was there).

 

Another scene from Olanchito.

 

I liked this picture a lot.

Here you see how the farmers grow African Palm Trees like any other crop. You will see fields like this all over - even over a mountain. It is my understanding that it takes about five years for the palm to grow and begin to produce its fruit, which I was unclear what the fruit was. I thought it was coconuts but was told it was something else. Click Here to see what the fruit of the African Palm Tree looks like.  

We did not only see the nice parts of Olanchito and La Ceiba. When we were leaving Olanchito, Pastor Jorge and Pastor Moises took us out toward the town dump where some of the incredibly poor people live. This is a house made out of mud. It may look like bricks but it is only mud bricks.

Here is another mud brick house. These folks are really destitute. I think Pastor Jorge was talking to the World Hope representative to show there was work they could do in this part of town. I also think he was doing whatever he could to make sure we would all come back the next year.

 

Honduras is a beautiful country and the people are very hospitable. They seem to enjoy having us gringos locos running around their town. Granted, I have had limited exposure to the country. I have been there exactly twice and have been to only four towns along the northern coast. But I have enjoyed my time there.

 

More pictures to come...

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Pictures from Honduras #4

One of the things I most appreciated while in Honduras was the Hondurans inhibitions when worshipping God. At every church service I attended while I was there, the people sang with all their hearts, prayed with fervency, and listened to the Word of God intently. It was quite refreshing. Here are some pictures about what I am talking about (click on picture for larger image):

Before every service, people would come forward and use the stage as an altar and lift the service up to God. Even before I taught at the Institute, there were men and women up front praying for the day. In the picture above, the church has laid down a little strip of carpet so people can kneel (the floor was rough concrete).

 

Here is a man at Pastor Moises' church before Sunday's worship service.

Additionally, at every church they had a worship team. They may not have lights, they definitely did not have air conditioning, but they had a great sound system and instruments and musicians who played them. In the previous two pictures above, you see drum sets on the stage. In this picture, the pastor said these men who played for this church's worship team didn't even know what a guitar looked like six months ago but their worship leader taught each of them to play and sing. They did a fine job leading worship. I thought it was interesting that they all coordinated by wearing pink shirts with black pants. They obviously had thought about leading worship for that evening.

 

The reason they were to effectively lead worship, in my opinion, was because they realized they had an audience of One. They were not playing for those in attendance; they were worshiping the One True God. This is evident in the fact that when they were finished tuning and practicing, they gathered to pray. Again, you see how prayer is integral to the worship service in Honduras.

I had to include this picture. They would use whatever they could as a musical instrument to praise God with. The man above is using a turtle shell as a type of cow bell (I have a disease, and the only cure is more turtle shell....I gotta have more turtle shell).

In each church, the people responded in worship with passion and loud, unhindered singing and praying (I will note here that I realize worship is more than singing but I am just focusing on the singing part of worship). There was a point while at the church in this picture where the electricity cut off and the piano stopped and the microphones cut off. This did not stop the people singing their hearts out. It was so beautiful to hear them singing acapello, with all the parts present. I tried to record it with video on my camera but failed to do get it.

Here is another worship service and you see the people praising God unashamedly, raising their hands in praise to God. Their worship services were really celebrations of God and His grace given to us. I would encourage you listen to Louie Giglio about this phenomenon of raising hands in worship (just click his name to watch a video - if you do not have an hour, then start at about 28 minutes and listen for about 8 minutes - it is worth listening to).

 

I was so glad to be able to experience worship in another culture. It is a great thought to remember that Jesus' grace is spread around the world and it is not just America that impacting the world for the Kingdom of God. Nations around the world are ministering to those in their country and bringing people to Christ. It was also refreshing to worship with Christians who are not stunted in their worship but instead pour their hearts and soul out to worshipping God in a manner in which He deserves.

 

More pictures coming...

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