I haven't had a late night like this in quite a while. Krissy is sleeping, and I decided that I wanted to finish my final project for my class, Interpretation of the Old Testament. I have been very distracted all day, but I seem to have been on a roll the last hour or so. Now I am distracted again. I figured I might as well be constructive somehow.
So I listened to a sermon by Paul Washer this morning. It's called "Did You Know You're in the Bible?" It speaks of the Great White Throne Judgment. He talks about how John mentions in Revelation 20:12 that he saw the dead, the great and small, standing before the throne. John gies on to talk about the book of life being opened, and thedead were judged by their deeds. The kicker was that John saw you before the throne. He saw you and he saw me standing there before the throne. Oh we are all going to be eternal beings...either in Heaven with God, or in hell being eternally tormented. Do you want that book to be opened? I don't think I do. How much sin do I have that I have not confessed and repented of? God please have mercy on me and may your grace abound for my sin.
That's the good news. There is grace. Grace is of God only, so it is infinite. Our sin is from us, so it is finite. Therefore, grace can cover our sin. However, Paul warns us that we should not continue in sin so that grace may abound even more. We are DEAD to sin, so how can we live in sin? Does this mean that a Christian, a truly regenerated person, will never sin again? Goodness no. However, regeneration is a changed heart. We no longer take pleasure in sin, we no longer live a lifestyle of sin. Now we live a lifestyle of worship toward God.
Romans 8 says that those God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. May God fulfill this in my life as well as yours. Psalm 33:13-15 says God looks down on us from heaven, He sees ALL the sons of men. He knows you, me, our unborn children, etc. How can I not praise God for who He is? Praise the God who continues to conform me to the image of His son.
For you prayer warriors, Krissy has strep throat. I have not had a sore throat yet, but I tend to have a weak immune system. God does have control over my infirmities, though. I believe that Krissy will be fine, and that I will be fine as well. I am going to get back to my work now. God's blessings on you!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Church Discipline?
Have you ever wondered about the phrase Jesus uses in Matthew 18:18 about binding and loosing? It seems kind of strange and mystical doesn't it? I have been reading a book titled Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. He quotes this phrase from Matthew 16:19 where Jesus is talking to Peter. Jesus tells Peter (whose name means rock) that on this rock He will build His church in verse 18. What rock is he talking about? Is it referring to Peter, or Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God? Sounds to me like a bit of both, especially noticing the play on words where Jesus states Peter's name before making the statement. Let's get to the hairy part...So Jesus tells Peter He will give him the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever he shall bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever he looses on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
So Rob Bell takes the stand that Jesus is telling not only Peter, but all of His followers, that they have the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. Seeing as the same phrase appears in Matthew 18:18, let's see what it might be referring to in this passage, so we can have some insight into this phrase's meaning...
Verse 15 of Matthew 18 indicates that we are talking about sin here. If your brother sins against you, go reprove him in private, and if he listens, you have won your brother. If he doesn't, take one or two with you so that every word may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If he still refuses to listen, tell it to the church. If he still doesn't listen, he should be treated as a Gentile or tax collector (in other words, not associated with, not accepted in the church). Then he uses this binding and loosing phrase again. What is He saying?Is He referring to the decisions made by the church concerning people or is He referring to the actions of people?Seems that sin is the subject of the passage. More specifically, sin and the church. So what is being said by this phrase?
Looking at this in its context, it seems to me that Jesus is saying that any sin that is bound by the church has already been bound by God, and any sin that is loosed by the church has already been loosed by God. If a person repents, God has forgiven them, and so should we. However, there is another aspect to this. This is speaking to the disciples in THE CHURCH. Those who pretend to be the church may bind something that has not been bound in heaven, and may loose something that has not been loosed in heaven. So how did Rob Bell come to his conclusion?
He sights some excellent cultural background for understanding the language of this passage, but overthinks the interpretation. In those days, Rabbis were well respected teachers of the Tanakh (The Old Testament). Rabbis had what was called a yoke, or a set of interpretations of what the different laws meant. We see this in Jesus' day with the mention of laws that are not in the written Torah, but are part of the Oral Traditions. The permitted acts according to the Rabbi were considered to be loosed, but the forbidden acts were considered to be bound. So Bell takes this to mean we have the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. Hmmm.
So Jesus came to fulfill the law. He was the Torah in flesh and blood. So why would He give us the authority to bind and loose after He had come to show us what was really to be bound and loosed? He is THE Rabbi, and we can not make new interpretations of the text. We can only discover or come to an understanding of what Jesus showed us. The disciples are called to call other disciples onto the carpet when they sin. They should confront sin and should follow the pattern Jesus gave us in Matthew 18. If the person does not repent, then they should not be considered a disciple again until they have repented. Maybe that person that we thought was a disciple was never really a disciple at all, but a poser, a fraud. Are we to judge that? If we tell someone they are saved, can we tell someone they are going to hell? Do we have the authority to tell someone either way? Maybe I'll talk about that next time. We need to understand the terms "justification" and "regeneration."
Thank you Lord for being in control of your body, the Church. May we always remember that you are our head, and that you are sovereign over us. Thank you Lord for disciplining us through your Church. Amen.
So Rob Bell takes the stand that Jesus is telling not only Peter, but all of His followers, that they have the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. Seeing as the same phrase appears in Matthew 18:18, let's see what it might be referring to in this passage, so we can have some insight into this phrase's meaning...
Verse 15 of Matthew 18 indicates that we are talking about sin here. If your brother sins against you, go reprove him in private, and if he listens, you have won your brother. If he doesn't, take one or two with you so that every word may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If he still refuses to listen, tell it to the church. If he still doesn't listen, he should be treated as a Gentile or tax collector (in other words, not associated with, not accepted in the church). Then he uses this binding and loosing phrase again. What is He saying?Is He referring to the decisions made by the church concerning people or is He referring to the actions of people?Seems that sin is the subject of the passage. More specifically, sin and the church. So what is being said by this phrase?
Looking at this in its context, it seems to me that Jesus is saying that any sin that is bound by the church has already been bound by God, and any sin that is loosed by the church has already been loosed by God. If a person repents, God has forgiven them, and so should we. However, there is another aspect to this. This is speaking to the disciples in THE CHURCH. Those who pretend to be the church may bind something that has not been bound in heaven, and may loose something that has not been loosed in heaven. So how did Rob Bell come to his conclusion?
He sights some excellent cultural background for understanding the language of this passage, but overthinks the interpretation. In those days, Rabbis were well respected teachers of the Tanakh (The Old Testament). Rabbis had what was called a yoke, or a set of interpretations of what the different laws meant. We see this in Jesus' day with the mention of laws that are not in the written Torah, but are part of the Oral Traditions. The permitted acts according to the Rabbi were considered to be loosed, but the forbidden acts were considered to be bound. So Bell takes this to mean we have the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. Hmmm.
So Jesus came to fulfill the law. He was the Torah in flesh and blood. So why would He give us the authority to bind and loose after He had come to show us what was really to be bound and loosed? He is THE Rabbi, and we can not make new interpretations of the text. We can only discover or come to an understanding of what Jesus showed us. The disciples are called to call other disciples onto the carpet when they sin. They should confront sin and should follow the pattern Jesus gave us in Matthew 18. If the person does not repent, then they should not be considered a disciple again until they have repented. Maybe that person that we thought was a disciple was never really a disciple at all, but a poser, a fraud. Are we to judge that? If we tell someone they are saved, can we tell someone they are going to hell? Do we have the authority to tell someone either way? Maybe I'll talk about that next time. We need to understand the terms "justification" and "regeneration."
Thank you Lord for being in control of your body, the Church. May we always remember that you are our head, and that you are sovereign over us. Thank you Lord for disciplining us through your Church. Amen.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
What do you think about God?
Krissy says I am afraid to post on the blog, so here is a nice long post for everyone:
At the suggestion of a good friend, I decided to read The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. Though I am reading chapter 5 now (Krissy and I have been using it as a nightly devotional), my mind is still reflecting on chapter 1. The opening line of chapter 1 has captivated my attention, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." What do you think about when you think of God? He continues, "For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like...The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another...Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him...The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him - and her."
I don't know how to get past this, and maybe I am not supposed to. Tozer has done such a wonderful job of making sure that his readers understand the impact of what we believe about God. This is no small matter to be overlooked as long as we all claim to be Christian. This is essential to our faith in Christ. For if we believe things about God that are less than He is, we have diminished the gospel. What is the gospel but that we can come close to God. What better news is there? Yet we make assertions about someone going to heaven because they have given intellectual assent to the fact that they are a sinner and Christ will forgive their sins. Is God to be compromised for men? If God created the Sabbath for men, how dare we suppose that God exists for us? Not so, we exist for the glory of God, and whether we bow down before Christ now or later, He will receive that glory. He is worthy, and we will ALL hail Jesus as king, whether it be now or later.
As Paul Washer says, we seem to have adopted this picture of God looking more like Santa Claus than the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. I have come in contact with quite a few people lately who have studied and analyzed the Bible so much that they have taken God out of the Scriptures that were penned by His Spirit. So, is it Santa Claus or is it the Bible? Neither, it is the great I am. He is holy, holy, holy. There is none like God, completely uncompromising in truth, yet never ceasing to display grace. How can we wrap our minds around this God? Though we may see a few of His undeniable attributes, we will never, never, never arrive at the fullness of who God is. Even in glory we will be eternally seeking to know more about God.
I know that to some, these words seem hard, and I do not deny that they are. It is truth, and the fact that we can know truth is grace. So, what comes into your mind when you think about God? Is it worthy of Him? I will tell you the little bit about God that I know: Though the entire human race is sinful and has degraded God, He sent His son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha'Mashiach) to be a propitiation for our sins. While Christ was nailed to a cross, God crushed him according to Isaiah 53:10 so that we could once again be in fellowship (koinonia) with Him. According to Proverbs 17:15 it was the only way we could ever be in fellowship with the Father. Then Christ was raised from the dead as the first born from the dead of many brethren. He now sits at the right hand of the Father until God should submit all His enemies to be a footstool under Christ's feet.
Thank you Lord! May I reflect the love you have shown the world in everything I do! May I never compromise your truth or grace, but show both to the world that they may see you for who you really are! Praise you Oh God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Amen.
At the suggestion of a good friend, I decided to read The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. Though I am reading chapter 5 now (Krissy and I have been using it as a nightly devotional), my mind is still reflecting on chapter 1. The opening line of chapter 1 has captivated my attention, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." What do you think about when you think of God? He continues, "For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like...The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another...Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him...The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him - and her."
I don't know how to get past this, and maybe I am not supposed to. Tozer has done such a wonderful job of making sure that his readers understand the impact of what we believe about God. This is no small matter to be overlooked as long as we all claim to be Christian. This is essential to our faith in Christ. For if we believe things about God that are less than He is, we have diminished the gospel. What is the gospel but that we can come close to God. What better news is there? Yet we make assertions about someone going to heaven because they have given intellectual assent to the fact that they are a sinner and Christ will forgive their sins. Is God to be compromised for men? If God created the Sabbath for men, how dare we suppose that God exists for us? Not so, we exist for the glory of God, and whether we bow down before Christ now or later, He will receive that glory. He is worthy, and we will ALL hail Jesus as king, whether it be now or later.
As Paul Washer says, we seem to have adopted this picture of God looking more like Santa Claus than the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. I have come in contact with quite a few people lately who have studied and analyzed the Bible so much that they have taken God out of the Scriptures that were penned by His Spirit. So, is it Santa Claus or is it the Bible? Neither, it is the great I am. He is holy, holy, holy. There is none like God, completely uncompromising in truth, yet never ceasing to display grace. How can we wrap our minds around this God? Though we may see a few of His undeniable attributes, we will never, never, never arrive at the fullness of who God is. Even in glory we will be eternally seeking to know more about God.
I know that to some, these words seem hard, and I do not deny that they are. It is truth, and the fact that we can know truth is grace. So, what comes into your mind when you think about God? Is it worthy of Him? I will tell you the little bit about God that I know: Though the entire human race is sinful and has degraded God, He sent His son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha'Mashiach) to be a propitiation for our sins. While Christ was nailed to a cross, God crushed him according to Isaiah 53:10 so that we could once again be in fellowship (koinonia) with Him. According to Proverbs 17:15 it was the only way we could ever be in fellowship with the Father. Then Christ was raised from the dead as the first born from the dead of many brethren. He now sits at the right hand of the Father until God should submit all His enemies to be a footstool under Christ's feet.
Thank you Lord! May I reflect the love you have shown the world in everything I do! May I never compromise your truth or grace, but show both to the world that they may see you for who you really are! Praise you Oh God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Amen.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Okay, so I've been through my first week of school. First day was off to a rough start, but the rest of the week was really good. I have a feeling that this year is going to be better than last. I was so ready to just drop dead at the end of the year because of how crazy busy we were! But this year is going along swimmingly. I'm always interested to see what my "baby girls" class is going to be like (they're actually my beginning treble choir), and I have the majority of teaching time with the older girls (the advanced treble choir). Our concert is on October 9, and we're doing some fun songs, but none that really jump out at me. Usually there's at least one, but the pickings weren't all that fabulous this year...oh well.
Umm...let's see...what else...Gary's doing great. We've both been pretty tired this past week, but have managed to stay on top of things. I'm in a women's bible study, and we're just finishing up the Beth Moore study of the book of Daniel (AMAZING!!!), and we're about to begin driving down to her Tuesday evening classes at Houston's First Baptist. She'll be doing the book of Esther, so some of the ladies are going to be getting together to watch One Night With the King tomorrow evening (Sunday before Labor Day). It'll be fun - I just finished making some molasses and ginger bars with cream cheese frosting...yumm!! We'll see how the other ladies like them...I love to bake - not cook, but bake. Don't know why, but I seem to be better with the oven, than I am with the stove.
Today we helped a couple of our friends, Kenny and Lisa move into their new house. It's brand spankin' new, and so nice. I was kind of in a daze all day, for some reason, but I'm about to go to bed.
Anyway, I just wanted to post something new, since it's been a while. Gary's a little scared of posting anything again, since the last time he did, he heard from lots of people...I'm trying to encourage him to write more, he's just got so much going on up there! heheh... :) Gotta love him! (I know I do!)
Goodnight.
Umm...let's see...what else...Gary's doing great. We've both been pretty tired this past week, but have managed to stay on top of things. I'm in a women's bible study, and we're just finishing up the Beth Moore study of the book of Daniel (AMAZING!!!), and we're about to begin driving down to her Tuesday evening classes at Houston's First Baptist. She'll be doing the book of Esther, so some of the ladies are going to be getting together to watch One Night With the King tomorrow evening (Sunday before Labor Day). It'll be fun - I just finished making some molasses and ginger bars with cream cheese frosting...yumm!! We'll see how the other ladies like them...I love to bake - not cook, but bake. Don't know why, but I seem to be better with the oven, than I am with the stove.
Today we helped a couple of our friends, Kenny and Lisa move into their new house. It's brand spankin' new, and so nice. I was kind of in a daze all day, for some reason, but I'm about to go to bed.
Anyway, I just wanted to post something new, since it's been a while. Gary's a little scared of posting anything again, since the last time he did, he heard from lots of people...I'm trying to encourage him to write more, he's just got so much going on up there! heheh... :) Gotta love him! (I know I do!)
Goodnight.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Road Trip 2007
From July 26 - August 8, Gary and I took a much-needed vacation. Along the way, we tent-camped, visited with friends and family, and just spent time alone together driving around the southwest US. Our first stop was my Grandma O'Donnell's home in Tucson, AZ. We were able to see her and my aunt Suzy while we were there, and it was great to catch up with them.
Here is a picture of the sunset at the Grand Canyon. You can see by the weather that we were witnessing some rain way off in the distance. The sun is right behind the clouds, but we were full of awe while we sat and reflected on God's glory and majesty while sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon. 
We are standing on top of the Navajo Bridge overlooking the Colorado River. We had just driven through the Vermillian Cliffs, and decided to stop and take another picture from this bridge. Kinda muddy...
I don't remember what town this was that we drove through, but it was between Bryce and Zion. They had an Elk Farm in the middle of the town. Pretty funny. They look like reindeer!
Here is our tent at Duck Creek Campground. This was the second campground we stayed at located between Zion and Bryce Canyon Nat'l Parks. It was my favorite campground of all the places we stayed. We had to set up in the dark, but slept quite soundly, once we put our earplugs in...
Here are some buffalo at a "Buffalo Viewing Restaurant." These guys are headed for their dinner. This place was right outside of Zion Nat'l Park, and there were probably close to 40 buffalo at this reserve.
Here is my cute hubby standing in front of our one fire that we made. We ended up cooking hamburgers and hotdogs that night for dinner. We had picked up some dry firewood at a place that was selling it on our way back from Bryce, and had a nice relaxing evening (a little on the chilly side) at our campsite in Duck Creek.
On our way to Moab, we drove through Capital Reef Nat'l Park. It was pretty cool because the whole place looked like it belonged underwater.
This was just a cool picture from the corral of the horse ride that Gary and I went on. That's Arches Nat'l Park in the background.
Here we are in Moab, Utah having just finished our horse-back riding tour, right outside of Arches Nat'l Park. It was a "sunset trailride" and hot as anything else (103, to be precise!). They gave us red bandanas to wet and put on our necks. They were completely dry after about 10 minutes of the ride...It was fun, to say the least. My horse was Bailey, and I don't remember Gary's horse's name - only that he tried to bite Gary's foot at one point. It was pretty funny. My horse was in a bad mood the entire ride, as he kept trying to bite Gary's horse's butt during the ride. It kept us smiling...
I had also reserved a rafting trip for the next day. It was fun - especially because Gary and I didn't have to share a boat with 10 other people. We were able to kayak the whole day. I was a little sore the next day, but not too bad. The Colorado River was so muddy. It was pretty gross, but cool to say that we've been kayaking now - and through rapids, too!!
This was called "Balanced Rock" at Arches Nat'l Park. It was Gary's favorite thing there. Pretty cool to see some of the natural creations, and how God just has a way to make our jaws drop in awe of his majesty...
This is called "Delicate Arch" in Arches Nat'l Park. We hiked up a .5 mi. trail to take this picture. Had we had more time, we probably would have made the hike all the way out to the actual arch, but we were trying to get to our campground near Gunnison, Colorado before sun-down (didn't quite make it, but we were okay - we were pros at setting up our tent in the dark!)
This is a picture of one of the ancient cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde Nat'l Park in southern Colorado. That was a neat place, but not one of our favorites, although, if we had had maybe a little more time there, it may have been better.
This is Gary in front of the tallest mountain in Colorado, Mt. Elbert. We were driving over the continental divide at this point in our trip, and had to stop a couple of times to take pictures of the breathtaking scenery.
This is Hannah and Bekah, Anna and Jimmy Moreno's children. We visited the Morenos first thing. It was our first time to go as a couple to visit their home in Haskell, TX. They're moving to Breckenridge - this week, as a matter of fact. Anna and Jimmy are both college friends of mine, and Anna was my matron of honor at our wedding. Their girls are the prettiest I've seen. They really do remind me of the Precious Moments pictures. BIG blue eyes and blonde hair. So pretty, and they have excellent parents.
- On Saturday (July 28), we drove up to the Grand Canyon, and camped at the Mather campground within the park.
- Then on Sunday (July 29), we packed up and drove east around the Grand Canyon, through the Vermillion Cliffs, then up on into Utah to Zion National Park. We then set up our camp at Duck Creek Campground just north of Zion.
- On Monday (July 30), we drove up to Bryce Canyon, then back down to re-visit Zion.
- On Tuesday (July 31), we left Duck Creek, and headed east through Capital Reef National Park, to Moab, UT. We had rented a cabin there at an RV resort. That afternoon, we went horseback riding, and then the next day, we kayaked down the muddy Colorado River.
- On Thursday (Aug 1), we went to Arches National Park right north of Moab, then headed southeast to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Then headed north to our campsite in the Gunnison area. We had to set up our campsite, yet again, in the dark.
- On Friday (Aug 2), we left Gunnison and just drove around Colorado, up through Aspen, and then back down and around through Colorado Springs. We ended up driving all the way to Dalhart, TX that night (much to our chagrin...you can read the story later in this post).
- Then on Saturday, we headed from Dalhart to Haskell to visit with our friends Anna and Jimmy.
- We stayed through Monday, and then headed to Carrollton to visit with our friends Tracy and Lindsay.
- Then on Tuesday, we headed to Howe to visit with our friends Stephen and Paige.
- Wednesday, we headed back down home to Spring, and crashed!! It was a wonderful vacation, and Gary and I both felt so refreshed and rejuvinated afterwards. Here are some pictures of our experience.
I look like a dork here, but I'm standing behind a tree trying not to cover the beauty of the canyons behind me. This was on the first day at the Grand Canyon. We hiked along the rim for about a mile and went to certain outlooks.
It looks like we're right on the edge here, but it wasn't really that bad. We're just posing at an outlook point, and wanted to get as much of the background in as possible.
Here is a picture of the sunset at the Grand Canyon. You can see by the weather that we were witnessing some rain way off in the distance. The sun is right behind the clouds, but we were full of awe while we sat and reflected on God's glory and majesty while sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon. 
These are the Vermillian Cliffs. As we drove around the east side of the Grand Canyon, we passed by this part. They were absolutely amazing. The colors that we saw in creation on this trip spanned the whole gammut of the rainbow. These red rocks were a beautiful sight to behold. Praise God!!
We are standing on top of the Navajo Bridge overlooking the Colorado River. We had just driven through the Vermillian Cliffs, and decided to stop and take another picture from this bridge. Kinda muddy...
Here are Gary and me at Zion's Nat'l Park. We're standing in a cave-type place under something called "Weeping Rock." This rock was raining out supposedly 12,000-year-old precipitation that was just now coming out. It was kind of cool...
I don't remember what town this was that we drove through, but it was between Bryce and Zion. They had an Elk Farm in the middle of the town. Pretty funny. They look like reindeer!
Here is our tent at Duck Creek Campground. This was the second campground we stayed at located between Zion and Bryce Canyon Nat'l Parks. It was my favorite campground of all the places we stayed. We had to set up in the dark, but slept quite soundly, once we put our earplugs in... Here we are at Bryce Canyon. Probably my second-most favorite place that we visited. The "hoodoos" in the background were absolutely fascinating to me. It was neat to see yet another wonder of God's imagination.
The little white dot on the left is Gary. This is at the entrance of Zion Nat'l Park. We decided to go back to Zion after visiting Bryce. In our opinion, the actual park wasn't nearly as unique and cool as the East entrance to the park, so we went back and climbed around a little and took some great pictures.
Here are some buffalo at a "Buffalo Viewing Restaurant." These guys are headed for their dinner. This place was right outside of Zion Nat'l Park, and there were probably close to 40 buffalo at this reserve. 
Here is my cute hubby standing in front of our one fire that we made. We ended up cooking hamburgers and hotdogs that night for dinner. We had picked up some dry firewood at a place that was selling it on our way back from Bryce, and had a nice relaxing evening (a little on the chilly side) at our campsite in Duck Creek.
On our way to Moab, we drove through Capital Reef Nat'l Park. It was pretty cool because the whole place looked like it belonged underwater. 
This was just a cool picture from the corral of the horse ride that Gary and I went on. That's Arches Nat'l Park in the background.
Here we are in Moab, Utah having just finished our horse-back riding tour, right outside of Arches Nat'l Park. It was a "sunset trailride" and hot as anything else (103, to be precise!). They gave us red bandanas to wet and put on our necks. They were completely dry after about 10 minutes of the ride...It was fun, to say the least. My horse was Bailey, and I don't remember Gary's horse's name - only that he tried to bite Gary's foot at one point. It was pretty funny. My horse was in a bad mood the entire ride, as he kept trying to bite Gary's horse's butt during the ride. It kept us smiling...
I had also reserved a rafting trip for the next day. It was fun - especially because Gary and I didn't have to share a boat with 10 other people. We were able to kayak the whole day. I was a little sore the next day, but not too bad. The Colorado River was so muddy. It was pretty gross, but cool to say that we've been kayaking now - and through rapids, too!!
This was called "Balanced Rock" at Arches Nat'l Park. It was Gary's favorite thing there. Pretty cool to see some of the natural creations, and how God just has a way to make our jaws drop in awe of his majesty...
This is called "Delicate Arch" in Arches Nat'l Park. We hiked up a .5 mi. trail to take this picture. Had we had more time, we probably would have made the hike all the way out to the actual arch, but we were trying to get to our campground near Gunnison, Colorado before sun-down (didn't quite make it, but we were okay - we were pros at setting up our tent in the dark!)
This is a picture of one of the ancient cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde Nat'l Park in southern Colorado. That was a neat place, but not one of our favorites, although, if we had had maybe a little more time there, it may have been better.
This is Gary in front of the tallest mountain in Colorado, Mt. Elbert. We were driving over the continental divide at this point in our trip, and had to stop a couple of times to take pictures of the breathtaking scenery.
Gary and me in front of a beautiful waterfall that was on our drive in Colorado. It was just a "Point of Interest" on Hwy 24. There were actually some guys in swim trunks that were about to jump off the cliff behind us into the icy cold water. Crazy college kids... :)
Okay, so this was probably the funniest, most dangerous time of our trip. On the last night of our driving around, before we headed back to civilization in Texas (because we all know, of course that Texas is the best state - well, except this motel in Dalhart - but that's practially in New Mexico, so it doesn't count...) Anyway, we were on our way from just driving around Colorado, headed to Texas via New Mexico. We had originally planned to just stop in Colorado Springs, but when we got there, neither of us was tired, so we decided to keep driving and plan on stopping in Raton, NM. When we arrived in Raton at around midnight, there was not an empty (decent) room in the whole town. So we decided to keep going to Clayton, NM - the next town on our little trek back to TX. When we got there about an hour later, it was the same story...we were starting to feel like Mary and Joseph - "No room at the Inn..." - only I'm not carrying a baby, let alone the Son of God! Okay, so we kept going...This time we stopped in Dalhart, TX - way up in the panhandle. There were six (6) hotels from Super 8 to Holiday Inn Express, and we went to all 6 at, mind you, 2:30 in the morning. NONE OF THEM had any rooms. Gary was all for driving in to Amarillo, but I had to get into a bed. So we decided to pull into a motel...DUN DUN DUN!!! So if anyone's seen the movie "Identity" with John Cusack, this motel put that one to shame. Gary and I got in and out of there as quickly as we could. It was the Xit Ranch Motel in Dalhart, TX. So gross. I wondered after having taken a shower there, if I was actually dirtier after, than I was before... some of the nuances of the room were: a bullet hole in the bathroom window, grunge all around the porcelain prison sink, the wobbly toilet, a 40-year-old swamp cooler that was louder than a semi, a lamp shade hanging on for dear life (see above picture), mold on the shower stall TILES (not in the grout, but ONE THE TILES), paper thin stained white towels, and furniture that looked like it hadn't been updated in 40 years.
This is Hannah and Bekah, Anna and Jimmy Moreno's children. We visited the Morenos first thing. It was our first time to go as a couple to visit their home in Haskell, TX. They're moving to Breckenridge - this week, as a matter of fact. Anna and Jimmy are both college friends of mine, and Anna was my matron of honor at our wedding. Their girls are the prettiest I've seen. They really do remind me of the Precious Moments pictures. BIG blue eyes and blonde hair. So pretty, and they have excellent parents.
Here's Paige, Stephen, Hope Wilhite, and kitty Hobbs. We visited with them after having visited Tracy, Lindsay, Elia, and Jude Tyson in Carrollton. (Both families have their blogs listed on ours).
Visiting with these two families was absolutely amazing. It was so good to spend time just catching up, throwing out ideas that we had been pondering over, and just chewin' the fat with our good friends. Stephen is the music minister at Howe First Baptist Church, and one of the neatest music ministers you will meet (he married Gary and me at our wedding, and Paige was a bridesmaid).
Tracy and Lindsay are two of the most godly people you could ever hope to know. We always love visiting with them because in watching and seeing how they live, it puts priority on simplicity and glorifying God in their daily lives. They work for an organization called Gospel for Asia, which is a missions organization that trains and supports native missionaries in Asia - mainly in India, and some south-eastern parts of Asia. It's an amazing organization, and K.P. Yohannen has been a great visionary in directing this organization to use finances to reach the lost in Asia and his words to impact the churches in the West (ie. America). Anyway, Gary and I had the chance to go take a tour of their facility. The guy who took us around told us story after story about the things that are happening over there. Each one (not lying) brought tears to my eyes. God really spoke to Gary and me that afternoon, walking through, and listening to all the things the pictures stood for (namely, the Gospel of Jesus Christ). We left there, truly changed, and our prayer now is that Christ would be glorified in our lives. We pray that the Father would help us to see ways to reach out, and also simplify our own lives, so we are not weighed down by the "things of this world."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)