It's time to get the Hampton Cruisers ready to go for another summer of biking goodness, and that makes me smile. Cheri and I love our old fashioned bikes and hope to give them a lot more use this summer than they got in 2011.
We want to check out some new bike trails in the Twin Cities, and maybe we'll even get to go to Lanesboro for a few days. That's always a really fun place to go camping and biking.
Do you have some favorite bike trails you'd like to recommend to us? Please let me know in the comments.
Most Altered Faces readers know that my son, Page, plays music with his brother, Jack Torrey, and their band the Cactus Blossoms. What many of you may not know is that Page is also the music leader at House of Mercy church in St. Paul. It's a win-win situation as House of Mercy has always favored and featured old American roots music as its preferred genre.
In addition to their congregation singing splendid old gospel songs, HOM worship services typically include a performance from a local artist or two. Click Here to explore some of the music for yourself.
"We're seeing Americans becoming more skeptical" about the propriety of religious involvement in politics."
From Reuters - March 21, 2012: Americans are increasingly uneasy with the mingling of religion and politics, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, in the midst of a campaign season punctuated by tussles over the role of faith in the public square.
Back in 2001, when Pew first asked the question, just 12 percent of Americans complained that their politicians talked too much about religion.
That number has risen steadily ever since and hit a record high in the new poll: 38 percent of Americans, including 24 percent of Republicans, now say their political leaders are overdoing it with their expressions of faith and prayer.
And more Americans than ever, 54 percent, believe churches should keep out of politics. That's up from 43 percent in 1996, according to the Pew Research Center.
When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born;
With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil’s walking parody On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth, Of ancient crooked will; Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb, I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour; One far fierce hour and sweet: There was a shout about my ears, And palms before my feet.
Holy Week begins next Sunday, April 1. If you live in the Twin Cities, I invite you to join us for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday services atValley Christian Church.
I am enjoying a collection of poems, First Words (2010), by Joyce Sutphen. She is currently the Minnesota Poet Laureate and I have posted about her before in a previous edition of Wednesday Words. With poem titles such as "Zuchinni Bread," "Polka Revival," and "Breakfast," the collection comes across as a very personal, midwestern, down-to-earth memoir in verse. I just love it.
From Red Dragonfly Press: Joyce Sutphen grew up on a working dairy farm, and her poems recover this lost world, with all its beauty and order. This collection traces a shift in the rural landscape from horses to tractors, from haystacks to hay bales---and watches as time ages and changes the people who make up the story. First Words is both elegy and celebration--ultimately its center is family, then and now.
I'm also reading a couple of books in preparation for an upcoming teaching series I'll be starting on April 29. The series title is You Were Made for This and will explore the topic of spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities, and what it means to find our places of ministry in the life and mission of the church.
My wife and I have tickets to a couple different St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert series, but we've had quite a time getting to all the concerts this year. We've had to reschedule and exchange tickets on a couple of occasions due to personal calendar conflicts, and there have been a few times when Cheri has not been able to attend. Yesterday was one those.
However, a happy new development in our family is that my grandson, Søren, is now old enough to go to concerts with me when his Néné can't. So yesterday, after I got home from church, Søren and I went over to Bethel University to take in an afternoon performance. We stayed for two of the pieces. The first was String Octet by Romanian composer, George Enescu, and the second was Mozart's Adagio in E for Violin and Orchestra.
I'm a big fan of the SPCO. We're so blessed to have such a wonderful orchestra in the Twin Cities. I'm also enjoying my new opportunities to introduce my grandson, Søren, to classical music and the experience of live orchestra concerts.
If you'd like to get a feeling for our first 40 minutes of yesterday's concert, here is a video of Enescu's String Octet. It's not the SPCO, but it's the same piece performed at the Esbjerg International Chamber Music Festival 2011 in Denmark. Thank you, SPCO, for making this kind of music available in the Twin Cities.
Almighty God, we come to you today asking you to help us to submit our wills and our desires to Yours. Help us to live stable lives with your direction and wisdom.
Help us to love your commands and to delight in your promises as we face the challenges and changes all around us. Give us your joy and peace in every circumstance.
Forgive us our sins, O God. Lead us away from temptation. You are so faithful to forgive and restore those who have sinned against you. Help us to be faithful to forgive and restore those who sin against us.
O God, give us the eyes to see your goodness, and the minds to remember your faithfulness to your people throughout history. Give us hearts that are ready to worship you all day every day, and voices that are quick to sing your praise.
It looks like something from a J. R. R. Tolkein story, but this is a real place. It's called Ball's Pyramid and it sits off the coast of Australia in the South Pacific.
Why is this man smiling? And what does it have to do with ginormous bugs and Ball's Pyramid?
President Obama visited the Copper Mountain Solar One Facility in Nevada yesterday. The visit was similar to a visit he made a year ago to the Electratherm facility in Reno, Nevada where my brother-in-law, Rob Emrich, is the vice president of sales. A local news channel in Reno asked Rob to watch and comment on how the speech President Obama made a year ago in Reno compared with the speech he gave yesterday at Copper Mountain.
Electratherm is a company that is developing technology for capturing and recycling heat lost from equipment such as engines, motors, boilers, etc. Heat is energy!
My friend, Dr. Luke Corwin, is a particle physicist who keeps a blog called Great Are the Works of the Lord. He named the blog with Psalm 111:2 in mind: "Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them."
I first met Luke when he was a freshman at the University of Minnesota. I was the campus pastor with Christian Student Fellowship and Luke was one of the most active and faithful students in our group. Now, these many years later, it is a joy for me to see him doing so well with his work and to see he is still growing in his faith.
I encourage you to read his recent post reflecting on the spiritual aspects of neutrinos. Luke's perspective is a good reminder that faith and science are not opposed to each other. Here is a brief excerpt to pique your curiosity.
The idea that even inanimate physical objects can have properties beyond those discernible by science is one I had not considered deeply in a long time. However, I think God is using these passages from Lewis' writing to reactivate this line of thinking in me. Phrases like the elegant Universe, the God particle, and the handwriting of God may be echos of the great minds that Lewis mentioned.
Many poets and artists have pondered what a star is beyond its energy and plasma, so I thought it would be a good exercise to ponder the possible spiritual aspects of the particles I study: neutrinos. - - - Despite their ghostly qualities, they are necessary to several physical processes that are important to life on Earth. Without neutrinos, the sun could not shine as it does. With out the sun, the existence of life would be impossible. Nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons could not function as they do. Most of the energy of exploding stars called supernovae is carried away as neutrinos. Supernovae create and disperse many elements (such as iron and iodine) that our bodies require to function. Neutrinos are found throughout the Universe in great quantities.
In January through February 2012, I preached a series calledAll Kinds of Prayer. I learned a lot during that series and enjoyed preparing and presenting each sermon. I sure wish I had come across this poem by C. S. Lewis before or during that time. I most certainly would have worked it in somewhere. When we recognize how limited our understanding, how insufficient our notions of God, and how inadequate our words, we will find ourselves humble and thankful at the throne of Grace.
Footnote to All Prayers by C. S. Lewis
He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou, And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art. Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme Worshipping with frail images a folk-lore dream, And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert Our arrows, aimed unskillfully, beyond desert; And all men are idolators, crying unheard To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word. Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.
NOTE: "Pheidian fantasies" is a reference to the 5th century B.C. Greek sculptor and artist, Pheidias, who was renowned for his statues of Zeus and Athena.
A collection of Lewis’s shorter poetry on a wide range of subjects-God and the pagan deities, unicorns and spaceships, nature, love, age, and reason: “Idea poems which reiterate themes known to have occupied Lewis’s ingenious and provocative mind” (Clyde S. Kilby, New York Times Book Review). Edited and with a Preface by Walter Hooper.
About six weeks ago, we started a new wellness ministry at our church called Weigh & Pray. There are about a dozen or so of us (men and women) who get together for 30 minutes every Wednesday evening to chart our weight loss and exercise goals. Everyone sets their own goals and keeps their own personal chart.
We talk about our challenges and our successes from the past week, and we share the things we're learning. We don't all follow the same plan or strategy, and none of us are experts on weight loss or exercise, but all of us are interested in hearing from each other and from others in our church who have had long-term success.
Last week, our friend, Michelle, visited the group and gave us some information about a special diet that seems to be helping her family eat healthier. Ted, one of the guys in our group, talked about a book he has read and the nutritional diet principles he's been following. He's had such good success in the first couple of weeks that I thought I would check it out for myself.
The book is called Eat to Live and is by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. After hearing Ted talk about it, I bought a copy for my Kindle. It's easy and informative reading. I'm only a few chapters into the book, but have already found it to be both informative and motivational. I'm going to have my wife read it too to see what she thinks. One thing is sure, I'm at a point in my life where I really do need to need to get a healthier approach to food and fitness. Maybe Eat to Live will help me with the food part of that equation.
If you've read the book or have reactions or opinions, please post a comment. Thanks.
Publisher's Weekly: In this new edition, which incorporates the latest scientific nutritional data, Fuhrman's restrictive diet plan is designed for clinically overweight people who suffer from a spectrum of lifestyle/obesity-induced conditions like diabetes and heart disease and need to drop a significant amount of weight fast—about 20 pounds in the first six weeks.
The basis of Fuhrman's program is Nutrient Density, expressed by the simple formula health equals nutrients divided by calories. Fuhrman's "secret" to optimum health and permanent weight control is giving the body only what it needs. An aggressive six-week vegetarian plan segues into a regimen that includes a limited amount of animal products, like lean fish or egg whites once a week. Although proven and sound, this guidebook is not for someone who wants to lose those last 10 pounds or fit into her wedding dress; this is a serious undertaking for dieters whose umpteen previous efforts have failed and whose health is endangered.
This week, my son, Tyler, will be playing electric guitar backing up Matt Redman in concert at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu. Tyler played on Matt's 10,000 Reasons CD and is playing somewhere back in the shadows on this video (I think it's a live performance at a worship leaders conference).
Tyler is always enthusiastic and grateful whenever he talks about playing with Matt. He loves Matt's attitude and always comes away from those worship concerts feeling like it was an enriching and meaningful experience.
Psalm 89:8 8 Who is like you, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.
Gracious Father, thank you for sending your Son Jesus Christ, the true bread of heaven which gives life to the world. Fill us with this bread that we might take hold of the life he gives.
Forgive us our sins, O God. And as you have shown us mercy, make us able to be forgiving and merciful to others. Help us to turn away from what is wrong and to do what is right. Help us to escape temptation.
Holy Father, open the eyes of our hearts and enlighten us in order that we may know the hope to which you have called us. Show us your goodness, and transform us by your great and saving power.
Through Christ, we pray. Amen
John 6:35-40 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
It's time to get the Hampton Cruisers ready to go for another summer of biking goodness, and that makes me smile. Cheri and I love our old fashioned bikes and hope to give them a lot more use this summer than they got in 2011.
