Dancing With The Dinosaur

It's that time of the week again! I hope everyone is doing well. I myself am doing pretty well. This past week was pretty chill aside from the 10k that we ran on Monday in the snow, ice, and mud. My time was 01h:17m:17s. Which was only about 20 minutes off the fastest time. I finished strong in 17th out of 40 people. Not bad for my first 10k, not to mention in the elevation and weather conditions. I started to race with some pump up music on. After a strong start out of the gate I realized I would not even be able to hold my conservative pace. I started to fall back in place. So once the competitor inside me became okay with a finish outside the top 10 (which I already knew was a long shot) I settled down to a slower pace, turned on my Steven Curtis Chapman playlist and just enjoyed the race and being outside.

before

I find it weird that I can say that because I do not enjoy running just to run. I don't get it at all. Give me a ball to run with, or my Paintball gun and I could go all day. But just running for the sake of running especially when I know that my finish will not be a medal spot... no thanks. So instead of have a poor attitude about it, I kept thinking of 1st Corinthians 9:24 "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize". It is hard to keep that mindset when you know you will not win the prize. But we are called to, regardless of what the outcome of the race is going to be.
I love competition, especially in sports I love to play and for that matter life. But when it is something I don't necessarily enjoy doing or I see that I will not finish very well in. I can tend to do it halfheartedly. That is not often though because I do not usually compete in something  I do not like, But it will show when I have to do it. So that to say, I was very surprised to have such a positive outlook on it.

after

So what in turn happened was I basically had a worship session while running. Just thanking the Lord that I was able to run in the cold and nasty conditions. Strange huh? Well it happened. I think we often don't translate that attitude to our daily lives. Instead we live halfheartedly in what we do, when we should be thankful to just be able to do them and run the race as to win it!

We had another week of in house teachers for our classes. The majority of the classes this week were by Dan Thomas and he taught on mainly king Saul and the transition to king David. We focused on how at the start of Saul's kingship he did as he was commanded and followed the lords command. But as time went on Saul became more concerned with what and how things were being done, instead of why. Saul tried to justify his means with the end. But God is more concerned with obedience than sacrifice. The main story of Saul we can see this in is when  in 1st Samuel 13 starting in v5, he decides that he has waited long enough for Samuel and takes things into his own hands.
     
⁵ Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty^[b] thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth Aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. ⁷ And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. ⁸ Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. ⁹ So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.
¹¹ And Samuel said, “What have you done?”
Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, ¹² then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”
¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

When reading that you cold say "well he had no other choice". But the fact is Saul knew the rules, and that he was commanded to wait. We see also in chapter 15 where he is commanded to kill and destroy the Amalekites and all of their livestock. But they took some people alive and took the best of the animals for a sacrifice to God. Even though Saul's and the Israelite's intentions were good, they managed to forget one small detail. GOD SAID KILL EM ALL! That was to be the sacrifice. Yet instead of doing as instructed he chose to do it his own way and it cost him and his family the kingdom.

I will not go into to it to much but if you look at Gen 49:8-10.
 

⁸ “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father's sons shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is a lion's cub;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
    and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;^[a]
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

  
You can see where Abraham says that Judah will rule over his brothers. Yet we see God say that Saul's kingdom would have lasted forever.  I will let you think on that one and how the Lord could have worked through that.

We were down again at the coffee hour this past Friday.  Sadly I did not run into my friend Muhammad. Midterms for a lot of classes down there are going on right now so I believe that is why I did not see him. However I did get to chat for a bit with my friend Ivan. Who was raised in a Christian home but has now decided on Atheism. Just trying to build a friendship and show the love of Christ through being a friend and good influence. 

My weekend has been really good with the Gators trouncing Vandy yesterday and going for a sweet Longboard ride this afternoon with some friends and being able to play guitar a FVB tonight. It is supposed to snow pretty much all week, I am ready for it to come! I bought a pretty sick board so I'm ready to try it out and shred!


 Something I have been thinking a lot about this week is the attitude of some us students (myself included) towards some of the rules here. In our eyes some of them may seem kind of stupid and unnecessary but they have a purpose and we signed our names down that we would follow them. We may not like being addressed for one that we don't agree with or think is stupid. We may not like how it is handled. But the fact is we said we would abide by them. So along with that and just how we live our daily lives these words kept coming to mind.

Once upon a time not so long ago in a land not so far away
Right and wrong were not quite so hard to know
And black and white were not so gray
Times have changed and now it seems
Conscience has gone the way of the dinosaur
But I believe it's still alive and well today
In the hearts of those who will stand up and say

I'm dancing with the dinosaur
Living my life with conscience and conviction
I don't want to see the truth ignored
So I've gotta keep on dancing
I've gotta keep on dancing with the dinosaur

 I guess that comes to mind for me because when I signed my name. It was me saying I commit to this and what it is those above me will do when these rules are broken. I gave my word, and when I decide to spout my disagreement in a condescending way it is just as bad as me going back on my word. So I was a bit convicted of that and a bit discouraged when others around me did the same. Because we should live by our word, with conscious and conviction in the things we say and do. Weather it is with a rule we disagree with, or the way we respond when we've been wronged, or our actions to someone else. Also in thinking of how Saul was more concerned with going through the motions instead of making sure the heart was right.

It is about 5 weeks till I come home. I'll tell ya I am ready for a visit back. I miss my family, my friends, my job, my truck, and my country music. Not that I don't like it out here but there is no place like the South and no place like home.

Till Next Time
Love Jared

Signs Of Life!

Hey everybody! Another great week is in the books! On Monday we had our amazing race, that in all was about a 7 mile race over mountains and trough valleys. All while we had to complete challenges along the way. Oh and by the way there was about 8" of snow on the ground, it was crazy! We started about 10:30am and my group of 4 finished around 5:30pm. Needless to say we were exhausted. We started the race with charades to get our next objective. We then proceeded to fill a bucket with Nalgene dipping water from a lake while in a firemen line and our last teammate was pouring into the bucket while blindfolded. After we had completed that objective we obtained coordinates to a trail head. Once on the trail we then had a few mile hike to our next checkpoint. Once we made it to the next checkpoint on the 1st of 5 false summits. We had to then with teamwork manage to stand on a very small tarp and without stepping off manage to flip the tarp over completely. We then proceeded on our hike to the summit. Our next challenge was starting a fire with only what we can find on the summit and one match. The more matches we used we had to take a penalty. We had our fire going with only 5, thanks to some very snowy tender we couldn't get it going with just 1. Once we had our fire going we then had to put it out safely, which wasn't to hard with all the fresh snow laying around. We then continued our hike down the mountain to our next checkpoint. Our next to last objective which we then used our orienteering skills to find a few way-points on the side of the mountain, again thank you for 5th grade geography. See Mamma I was listening! Once completed, you guessed it we did some more hiking. The final task to complete we had to build a cross then carry it on our backs the final mile. We didn't win the race but we were competitive and had a blast!

Me and my buddy Jacob

FL JacobV BL JacobH BR NaomiK FR Me

Our Monday activities are set up so we have to think how the difficulties or joys we have during the activity would apply to instances in our everyday lives. Personally I don't like to have to rely on others to get things done. I like to do it my way, 1 because I like to think I usually can do it best, and 2 if I don't have too I don't want to burden others with what I could take care of myself. As my team started our race I defiantly began to see that this race I was not going to be able to do it alone. My team was comprised of me and 3 northerners 1 from Canada and 2 from Minnesota. Which without them and their words of snowy wisdom, I would probably be frozen on the mountain side right about now. As most of you know I do not have to much snow experience, well my friends made it known to me quick what not to do if you are going to be out in it all day. Throughout the day I realized through all of the objectives most of them I could have done by myself. However if I would have done them by myself by the end of the day I would have been extremely tired and most likely wouldn't have finished when I did. I was also able towards the end of the race push my team to finish strong. Thanks to them holding me back a bit on the way up the mountain. The same goes for life, there will always be trails we have to walk and different goals we have to complete in life. We won't always be able to do it alone, but that's why we have been blessed with other believers with different strengths and abilities to surround us so we do not have to go in it alone. We may not want to accept it as I don't a lot of the time, but the fact is that we all have been given different strengths and weaknesses because we are all different parts of the body. It was a great day with a great team!

We had the blessing of Wayne Weissman the father of our Dean of students (Joseph Weissman) come and speak to us on the feasts of Israel. I had never realized how much the feasts of Israel intertwine with the for telling, coming,  and returning of Christ. For example I knew how the passover feast was a remembering of the passover in Egypt and as a for telling of when Christ would be crucified. But I hadn't ever payed attention to the fact that the feast of trumpets was set in place to remind Israel that Christ would one day return. All of Leviticus chapter 23 basically says out how the story will play out. It was a sweet series this week on the feasts and a look into some Jewish culture.

 

We had a little bit of a Halloween party on Thursday night because were still going out to do our outreach's on Friday. I went as Gator nation. Which now after the 38-20 win over the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday my week has been even better!  Go Gators!

On Friday night we again were down at Colorado University for the international coffee hour. I had the pleasure of letting a few internationals know about Horizons and pointing them in that direction so they could get some help if they needed it. But the highlight of my night was talking to a guy I have been building a friendship with. His name is Muhammad, he is from Saudi Arabia,  and he is a Muslim. I had the privilege of talking for maybe 2 hours one on one with him straight out of the bible. It was only by the grace of God that he was as open to the words I had to say and the words the Spirit had to say through me. It was funny that our conversation about Christianity and Islam started all because he asked me how Halloween started. I was able to focus most of our conversation on the similarities between the two. We spent a good bit of time on Abraham and Issac or in his case Ishmael. After talking with him for a little bit I realized now more then ever just how closely Islam Mirrors Christianity. I find it amazing how it only takes a few changes of a name here or a date there and you are so close to the original story yet so far away from it. I was so bold to even bring up Jesus after I saw that he was more than okay with discussing the Bible. There was no push back to the topic, in fact he welcomed it and had much to say about Christ. But again the story of Jesus has been distorted through the teachings of the Koran. Yes Jesus was a good man but as we know he was so much more. I was relived and happy to hear that he was open to talking about the truths of the Bible. We talked till we were the last 2 people left. When we got up to leave I said that I enjoyed our topic of discussion very much. To which he said the same. Before we headed our separate ways I said that we should again talk next week and if he had any other questions about the Bible and Christianity for him to feel free to ask. To which he replied that he defiantly would.

The fields are ready for planting we are just called to cast the seed. So that is what we are doing. I have seen the soil for most there is ready to accept it, others need a bit more tilling. But I ask if you are reading this to pray that the seeds take hold in good soil.

We will be running a 10k tomorrow and it is supposed to snow, so that should be fun haha. I was able to play again tonight at Fraser Vally Baptist. I do tho miss very much being able to play with my team on Sundays at Riverside and the family that I have there. It is not the same. Hopefully when I am back for Christmas I might be able to lead. 

 I almost forgot we had 2 baptisms this past week. The lord is moving here people. Not only through us for others, but also among us. 

So a song that has been on my mind this week has been "Signs of life". From the teaching to the baptisms to my conversation Friday night I have not only seen the signs of life but also hope to see them and hope they are seen in me!

These are the signs, these are the signs of life
The love that proves there is a living faith inside
These are the signs, these are the signs of life
The compassion and concern
That's gonna make this world keep turning
These are the signs of life
A love that's flowing from the heart
Where the grace of God has left its mark
These are the signs of life
The reaching out of a servant's hand
The giving that makes no demands
These are the signs of life
This is loving proof of the faith inside
These are the signs of life 

Till Next Time

Love Jared

Got To Be Tru!

Hey everyone! So this past week we didn't anything to extreme...sadly. However we did do some orienteering for our Outdoor Education for Spiritual Formation (OSEF). For those who do not know what that orienteering is, it is how to use a compass, read maps and coordinates, take a heading, and follow that heading the correct way. I would just like to say my 5th grade geography came in handy, thank MAMMA! So after a couple of classes in the morning we spent the remainder of the afternoon in the valley on a way-point race. My 4 person team finished in just over an hour. The winning team was done with a time of about 35 minutes. So that put us in 5th place. We would have had a much better time but on our last two checkpoints there was a very large metal object in the woods. Which in turn threw off our compass and we spent about 20 minutes doing some deductive reasoning to figure out which was our correct checkpoint, since there were multiple in the valley. It is okay though I am taking the loss well. Only a minor breakdown afterwords. I'm just kidding haha. It was a prep race for the actual race on Monday so the loss didn't hit me too hard. For those who don't know me as well as others, basically if I can compete at it, I will compete at it and you can put money on it I'm gonna go for the W! So the actual race will be Monday and from what I gather it is going to be an Amazing Race sorta thing. So I am extremely STOKED!

It also looks that I will be able to start playing guitar on a regular basis at Fraser valley baptist. So needless to say I am very happy about that.


We had a few different speakers this week all are staff here at Timberline. The majority of the week Dan Thomas spoke on 1st Samuel. We also Pete Hammond go through Ezra as well as Joseph Weissman give us an intro into Isiah.
I enjoyed going through 1st Samuel the most out of all the classes this past week. In the first few chapters of 1st Samuel we see the Israelites                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
again not quite following God like they are supposed to be,"big surprise I know". We see them putting their faith into the things of God instead of the god of those things. In chapter 4 we see how they were so convinced that bringing forth the Ark of the Covenant in front of them in battle would bring them victory over the Philistines. They only forgot one thing the Ark never brought them a victory, it was the Lord of the Ark that had brought them victory in the past. Also however we see the evil men who were leading in chapter 4, the sons of Eli. I wonder why it seems almost every time there is a Godly leader in Israel at this point in time and prior their sons turn out to be just wicked men. A verse that was said to me a lot growing up while I was being disciplined was Proverbs 22:6 which is-

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

I often wonder if these Godly leaders did not follow this command because if they did their children would probably not be wicked like they turned out to be. Which also takes me to another Proverbs verse. 

Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them. Proverbs 13:24

So I wonder if these Godly leaders just neglected their children? Or just didn't care? Whatever it was I would argue that we can look at these verses and see that if the leaders would have followed them, most likely Israel would have been much better off.

When Samuel becomes judge we see the drastic turn around from evil to Godly leader. We see how in chapter 7 that when the Philistines try to attack Israel by surprise all that Samuel has to do is pray and sacrifice to the Lord. Then God goes out and defeats Israel's enemies for them. All they had to do was ask and God would save them. Yet how quickly they forget and in the next chapter they demand a king to go out and fight their battles for them. So they can be like the other nations. Yet they are supposed to be Gods chosen people set apart from the other nations and what do they want to do? Be like everyone else. So they demand a king. Which in turn is do to another bad son leading the nation. Even when they are warned of what will happen if a king is given to them they still are stubborn and demand one.
Yet it is so very cool how through their demanding stupidity God still works and will send Christ through the line of king David.

We still end up doing this a lot today. Not so much demanding someone to fight our battles for us, however that can be one of them. I would qualify what we do and what they do is the same, saying we know best and demanding our way when God does not seem present. Yet at that very point in time He is just setting things in motion or lining the last few pieces up into place. We have to remember God's timing is perfect and ours just isn't anywhere close!

On Tuesday we had our workday. I was on wood detail. We delivered a trailer full of firewood to a lady from a local church. After unloading the trailer we then preceded to cut more and then split it. I felt right at home with the 18" chainsaw I was logging with. Thanks to the many years of practice at Doyle's Lawn and Landscape.

So for the outreach team I'm on we go down every Friday night to Colorado University and help out with Horizons International which is a Christian organization. We go over to the university for their international student coffee hour. What we do is basically go in and talk to students, if Jesus comes up great, if not we still are trying to leave a good impression of Christians on the students. We had an awesome time this past Friday. We did a free food Friday back at Horizons after the coffee hour. We had a great turn out. Along with dinner we did some pumpkin carving. for most of the students there they had never carved one before. I was the only one at my table who had done one before. So I enplaned what to do and everyone played their part. It was a fun time that's for sure!

 It was great to just get some hands on experience with some other cultures and other people and just be a light into their lives for those few hours. Hopefully week after week our saltiness will start to rub off on these people and they will start to see the difference in us.
Through this ministry it has made me think of how I act not only in public but also back at the lodge or even at home. Because one small thing can make it that much harder to show someone the difference we have compared to them. So these words come to mind.


Its got to be tru
I gotta be livin what I say I believe
Its got to be tru
Even when nobody but Jesus is whachin me
Its got to be tru
Every single minute of every day
Is anybody ever gonna look at me and say
hey its got to be tru

Now I know that I will never be perfect but I and we all do need to be more conscious in what we do and say in not only public but at home. Because we never know who is watching, but God always is.


Till Next Time
Love Jared. 
  

He's The King Of The Jungle

Hey guys! So this past week we had a full week of classes and are kinda starting to get into a normal routine. But before I get into all of that I shall tell you about Monday!

We had the privilege of going to the Young Life camp "Crooked Creek" up here about 5 minutes away from the lodge and use their high ropes course and huge drop swing. I tell ya it is a faith and trust building experience. Faith that you have been hooked into your harness correctly and trust that if you miss your step that it will catch you on the line. Once again after I overcame my initial fear of falling to my death, I was hopping along like a pro. Plus this course made me feel like I was on American Ninja Warrior! Haha. I now feel like I am ready for the qualifying round. 

Through all of these activities we have done so far I have really had to trust other people than myself and God. If you know me well, you know I don't usually like to get out of my comfort zone. I do what I know and I know what I like. I am so glad I have made the choice to be out here and really let the Lord take me out of what I know, and throw me smack dab into uncertainty. Because these great experiences I have now I probably, no I know I would have never done them without this leap of faith.

This Sunday night (yes I know it's Monday now and I am late with the post) I was finally able to play guitar at Fraser Valley Baptist during the evening service. I wasn't the leader but I was just happy to be plugged in and playing. Hopefully it will be pretty steady deal me playing or even maybe leading there.

 We had Charlie Mchall the director of the His Hill Torchbearers campus in Texas come out and speak to us for the week. He did an overview of  1st Kings and went from the end of King David's life through Solomon and finished with Elijah. I enjoyed it very much. Not only because those are some of my favorite stories from the Old Testament, but I really liked his style of teaching and the stories he used to go along with his lessons. He used many good southern terms and analogies during his lessons. Lets just say if you don't understand guns or why everything should be fried you may not get some of them haha. So needless to say if you know me well, I had a good sized smile on my face while I listened to the lectures.
As we went through 1st Kings we spent most of our time on King Solomon and even though he was the wisest man to ever live, he still made some very poor choices. We also went through the family of David and the split of the kingdom on our way to Elijah. I have always thought it to be very interesting of how wise King Solomon was yet the many, many poor choices he made. Some of witch affected him and others his family or for that matter the nation he was ruling. Such as the many wives he took from other nations. Which in turn lead his heart astray from the Lord when his wives brought in their own gods. Seeing he was so wise it is strange to me that he managed to forget the biggest of the Lords commands. Not only that, but the charge that his father David gave to him before he died.(see 1st kings 2:3) This is another great instance where being unequally yoked causes a bunch of trouble for Gods people. The part that gets me is the fact that he took all of these wives to show his power. Because culturally in that day and age, the more wives you had signified how powerful you were. I find it odd how a man who was humble enough to ask God for wisdom had such a problem with his ego, and the fact that instead of having the Lord who granted him his wisdom and everything that he did not ask for. Instead of letting God show his power Solomon did it his own way. Which in turn made the kingdom suffer because of it.

Now on to Elijah, which everything he has to do, or undo rather is pretty much directly related to what Solomon did and all the disfunction and turning away from God that his family did after. It is crazy to see how in the beginning of Elijah's story he has so much faith but has never seen any miracles and by the end his story, he has seen so many and has so much less faith that God says go anoint 3 men because they are now going to do what I had intended for you. But because of your little faith I will not have you be the one who finishes the job.

I know there is much, much more to both of those stories but that is the biggest thing for me that I saw in them. Maybe that's because I need to learn to not always put my faith in myself and my own abilities. We shall see as the year unfolds where the Lord wants to work on me.

We had and awesome time of joy in my dorm this week. As roommate who had been running from God and trying to do it his own way realized,  he can't. He then gave his life to Christ that night. It was an awesome night in our room!

As I sit finishing this up I'm trying to figure out a song to go with this and I think to best fit this post as it deals with faith would be this.

People say this world's a jungle
And sometimes I must admit
I'd be scared to death
If I did not know who was king of it
But the truth is God created
This whole world with His own hand
So everything is under His command, and...

What I feel
Is telling me this world's gone crazy
But what is real
Says God's still on His throne
What I need
Is to remember one thing:
That the Lord of the gentle breeze
Is Lord of the rough and tumble
And He is the King of the jungle


 That is something to remember weather we are trying to do it on our own. Or we get to a point where we feel like it can't be done and nothing will change. I feel that is something I do not tell myself enough. Yet I do believe those very words it's funny how when everything is going just peachy, how you forget to remember it.  Feel special you got a verse and a chorus this week haha.


Till Next Time
Love Jared

Speechless

So we all went down to Moab Utah this past week for an awesome week long camping trip. We left Timberline about 7:15 on Monday morning. It is about 6 hour drive from Fraser to Moab. The landscape down there is just crazy, I have seen mountainous landscapes before due to being in the Smokies. So my first few days being up in the Rockies I wasn't as in awe of them as I was of the desert, sandstone, canyon land, and jagged cliff like landscape of Utah. It was amazing. Just the vast nothingness and then all of a sudden a canyon with a river running through it and to see the life that river brings to the area around it with the trees, bushes,  and the wildlife.

We camped along the river in gold bar campground which is close to Arches national park . Totally roughing it.  Showers in the icy Colorado River that was about the extent of our amenities haha. Well, we did also have a hole in the floor outhouse. Which was a blessing and a curse. Lets just say I was glad I didn't have to dig my own hole but the closed in smell of that tiny room wasn't the most inviting. I can at least be thankful that It wasn't baking in the Florida sun all day. Definitely an awesome trip, but it sure wasn't the Holiday Inn Express haha. Though I did sleep in my hammock all week which was quite lovely. Thanks again to my church for the gift! I am the blue one in the picture below. A few of the other guys had the same setup idea.

The campsite is about a 25 to 30 minute hike away from the Carona arch. When we arrived Monday afternoon we hiked up and checked out the arch. It was quite an awesome sight to take in. The weather was very nice for the hike, around 80 degrees and almost no humidity at all. While most of the group thought they would die of heat stroke myself and a few of the other southern guys had a bit of a laugh at the comments of "its so hot", "ugh the heat", and others.  Since to us the high 70s, low 80s, and no humidity is a nice fall day haha. 

Tuesday we broke up into a few groups and went out and did some activities. I was with the first group to do some very advanced cross country mountain biking. The trail we did was insane with its uphills and downhills. We were riding on what's called "slick-rock" it's basically extremely smooth sandstone. Again did I say it was awesome!? It was probably my favorite part of the week, wait no it definitely was! We rented some top of the line mountain bikes for the trail, due to the difficulty of it since a Walmart special wont quite do the trick haha. To the top and the right is a few pics of some of the terrain we biked over.

After the 5 hour ride once we were passing back through town we stopped at this awesome little burger and malt/shake joint called "Milts". Which has been in Moab since 1954. It is seriously a taste of America at its finest.

Wednesday the group I was in went for a hike in Arches national park. We hiked back a few miles to the Black arch and the Double O Arch. Again some pretty sweet terrain to traverse. We had some pretty amazing views on the hike. After the hike, we again went to Milts

Thursday my group did some canyonerring. Which involved a short hike, some team building activities, some rather chilly water to wade through, and going backwards off a couple of extremely high cliffs. It was a very good exercise of trust, since I was at the mercy of my group leaders, the rope, and gravity. I'll tell you I haven't felt that helpless in a long time. But once you pass down that first 20 feet the other 100 is a blast. We had two repels, the first was about 140 feet and the second was about 200.  After we hiked for roughly 50mins out of the canyon we repelled into we again went to Milts. If we hadn't there may have been a mutiny. I think you could say we were hooked.

 

Here is a picture of their double chili cheeseburger and a jumbo vanilla shake. Side note I know it isn't very jumbo compared to how the South does jumbo. But oh my goodness was it so good!

We had our first lesson of the week in the shadow of the Corona arch. Our teacher for the week was Josh Pedersen who is a pastor of a church in South Carolina. Each day he took us through the book of judges and each lesson we focused on a specific judge. The point of the lessons this past week, were to show that just as the Israelites continued to return to their evil ways time and time again and then were rescued by a judge that the Lord would send, in the same way Christ has saved us from the ways of our flesh and the sinful nature we have inside of us.
Probably my biggest standout thought came to my heart and mind during the final morning session around the campfire. The question was posed to use after learning about the judges, Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Shamgar, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. My thought was on Samson and how in his story when in chapter 15 verse 18 after he is done slaughtering some Philistines with a donkey's jawbone (which side note he wasn't even supposed to touch in the first place) he cries out to the lord and this is how the text reads

Judges 15:18-20 NIV
Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord , “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.   Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

So even after the many many times Samson does his own deal and totally goes against the commands the Lord had for his life, God the father does not forsake him or forget him and continues to look upon him and care for his needs.
Now here's the cool part. Christ as the perfect redeemer for us, he hung on a cross for those sins that Samson committed and for the ones that you and I committed. He lived out perfectly the commands his father had set in place for his life. Yet unlike Samson who God the Father did not forsake or look away from, Christ hung on that cross and the Father turned his face from his son and did forsake him for that short amount of time. So that our ultimate need could be cared for which is our depraved state we are in.
One other piece of wisdom we can see from Samson is that it is very unwise to be unequally yoked. As we can see the trouble that everyone of his relationships got him into. Especially his relationship with Delilah. It's just a bad idea to be in a relationship with a non believer.

By now for those of my faithful followers know that I like to tie in some song lyrics to the end of my blog post. So far just Steven Curtis Chapman songs, so why quit now?
As I was out in Gods Awesome creation this week I found myself many times lacking words to say. You can only use "amazing, awesome, beautiful, and majestic" so many times to describe something before the start to lose their worth. Along with that I was thinking about my thought on Samson and Christ which the love that Christ showed to us we can't describe in words. So these came to mind.

I am speechless, I'm astonished and amazed
I am silenced by your wondrous grace
You have saved me
You have raised me from the grave.
And I am speechless in your presence now.
I'm astounded as I consider how
You have shown us
A love that leaves us speechless

Till next time
Love Jared

The Change

So this past week we hiked the Berthoud pass. It wasn't to bad a hike until the sleet and snow started to come down haha. Not very fun. Tomorrow we head down to Moab Utah where we will be hiking,  biking, and repelling into the canyon. Its gonna be really sweet. Gonna love the heat down there and everyone who thinks 80 is hot haha.

I almost forgot to post about our workday privilege to go up to the young life camp and help scrub the very bad black algae problem they have out of a 120 thousand gallon pool. Needless to say the maintenance guy who was kind of thrown into the fray was a bit in over his head. I was glad I could help and educate the staff up there a good bit on how to deal with the problem. 

This past week we had the privilege of hearing the director of the Himalayan torchbearers school "Satish john". He took us through the book of Ruth and through how the lord has changed his life. Satish used to be a member of a radical Hindu group in India when he was a teen and young adult. His main job in this group was to scare missionaries into leaving the country. Eventually the lord broke him through many things and Satish became a Christian. A short while after he put his trust in the lord, the same organization he used to be a part of put a bounty on his life. On more than a few occasions his life was almost taken. But by the protective hand of Christ his life was spared. The one story that stuck out to me the most was that one night Satish woke up to a member of his former organization over the top of him with a dagger in his hand and another standing beside him. Now these men are highly trained in the art of killing with a dagger. However the one rule they follow is that if the dagger missis it's mark on the first strike it can not be used again. Well the dagger missed its mark and went into the mattress to the bewilderment of the attacker. This then terrified the attackers. One ran from the house the other to terrified for his own life now could not move. But instead of retaliating Satish got up, said to the man who was shaking and sweating in fear by now, "you look like you could use something to drink, how about some Chi?" So they went into the kitchen and he had the opportunity to share  the gospel with him and lead him to Christ. After some time the other man returned to see what had happened. Satish had the opportunity to lead him also.
It struck me after I heard of those events, would I be able to show the love of Christ as Satish did, and not be angry or just do something out of self defense. I don't think I would. Or could just be that kind as he was.
So these words come to mind as I think of how we are constantly called to grow to be more like Christ.

What about the change
What about the difference
What about the grace
What about forgiveness
What about a life that's showing
I'm undergoing the change, yeah
I'm undergoing the change

Till next time!
Love Jared.

The Walk

This past week the guys went on a camping trip where we discussed the 23rd Psalm and how you see God. My take on the chapter is that by it we can see that the lord is not only our Shepard as it says, but also he is a teacher and correcter with his rod and staff. I came to that thought while reading the chapter and thinking about Proverbs 13:24 which says "Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them". So I thought of how many times my mom and dad have told me that while I was growing up. Now looking back I see how I am actually comforted by the correction I was given. Also how the same hands that disciplined would also protect me and care for me. So that was my big take for the chapter.
It was a few good days roughin it out in the woods. my second night i slept out by the fire with a few other guys. It was rather chilly but a fun time. We ate jerky, sat around the campfire, ate hotdogs, and did guy stuffs.
So then we came back to the lodge and sent the girls off for their camping trip and we had a few more days just for guys around the lodge. We had a guest speaker "Finley Robinson" who came and discussed what it is to be a man by the Bibles standard. I quite enjoyed it. I was blessed that i already know and try to follow just about everything he hit on, thanks to the Godly men in my life from my dad and the men in my church. something that kept coming to mind this past week was something my dad said to me as he was pulling out after dropping me off a few weeks back and that was "Be The Man". I thought I already knew what that meant and I did to an extant but I am realizing there is more to it. I am trying to lead by example here in the way a young man should act. Even when that means having to be different from the crowd and the possibility of being poked at or mocked for it. But thats part of "being the man" standing for whats right even when you stand alone.

Lastly we are possibly looking at snow in the next few weeks and i am pretty excited for it! It is very nice out here right now with the leaves changing and the cooler weather. Don't get me wrong I do miss the Florida heat, my jeep and driving around with my country music cranked up! I do miss my family and friends and my church but I am settling in and continually praying for the Lord to show me what he has in store for me.

 As I was finishing this up these words came to mind

 Well, you can run with the big dogs
You can fly with the eagle
You can jump through all the hoops
And climb the ladder to the top
But when it all comes down
You know it all comes down to the walk

Till the next time.
Love Jared