Stony Man mountain stands majestically in the distance, second only to Hawksbill in height in Shenandoah National Park. The warm sunset light bathes the landscape with a reddish glow as clouds cross the sky. Moments like these last for such a short while. Before you know it, the light is gone and the land sits in silent darkness awaiting the coming dawn. As I sit here in the doctor's office it's hard not to have a mixture of emotions. This isn't the time or place to go into a

It's a fair question, one that many people probably would answer with an emphatic "yes!" But what does Scripture say? Well today is going to be another share-a-post day, and I'm sharing this article from Ligonier Ministries. I hope that you find it helpful as you seek to answer that question not just on emotion, but on what God's Word actually says.

Pride goes before a fall. It's such a true statement, but hard to swallow when it's yourself that it applies to. Yesterday I decided to search for a waterfall well off of trail in a certain location. Where, I will decline to say exactly, for various reasons. I knew there was a vague forecast of rain, but I didn't check the details. The exact path to the falls? I figured I knew enough to be able to plot my own course. I have a GPS app, so I should be good, right? In other word

Montana feels like it was months ago and yet it was just a little over 2 weeks. It's weird how that works. Anticipate something for a long time, it comes, and it's gone before you know it, and then the memory of it so quickly goes. It's kind of like Christmas as a kid. But it's time to start going through some of the many photos and memories from Montana. One of the first evenings out there, we had driven around for quite a while looking for spots to photograph. But the fall

Notation after the fact: Below is a post that I intentionally wrote a little while back, but didn't share. The point was to bring an idea of looking ahead. I hope that comes through as you read this. Mostly that it points you ahead to the future hope we have in Christ. Will it be the final article in this series? I had one other idea that I have yet to write so we will see. I made a couple minor edits for posting now. Also, no photo for this one, though there is no real need

There's always a concern in writing a blog that one can get too personal, and in fact sound a bit on the whiny side. I really hope that that hasn't been the case for me recently, nor with this post. I hope instead that it just comes across as real and relatable. We all deal with ups and downs, pit stops and road blocks, and in some small way, the hope is that you'll find some encouragement and a Christ-ward focus through these. The truth is, coming off of the recent travel ex

A rainstorm blows in over me and my friend as we attempt to shoot a sunset in Yellowstone National Park. I don't rest well. I find that doing absolutely nothing and letting my body, and in my case more importantly my mind rest, is a challenge. So given that I am going on a week of being sick and somewhat laid up at home, I wonder if perhaps being sick was God's way of causing me to rest after a couple weeks of nonstop on the move on travel, photography, and mission work. Ok,

Going on several days being home but unfortunately still a bit under the weather. As such, today is a perfect day to share an article from one of my personal favorite speakers on Youtube. Calvin Smith works with Answers in Genesis as director and speaker for Answers in Genesis Canada, and the videos they put out are quite good and very helpful. For things like geology, to a newbie like me, it's a nice way to get my feet wet into that topic, along with many others that deal wi

The Christian Sabbath is a topic that can be a little, I don't know, confusing maybe, for some people. Some argue that the idea of a Sabbath rest was for the O.T. and we are no longer bound to any such thing in the new covenant. Of the ten commandments, it is the only one that doesn't have a direct restatement in the New Testament (I believe that's the case anyway). Others would say that since God Himself rested on the 7th day, then the idea of the Sabbath precedes the comman

It's been a long day. If that's the right phrase. We. Had a midnight red eye flight, and I am just plain wiped! Perhaps that is as good a reason as any to do something that bloggers do at times, though I personally have been shy to the idea; that is, to not only communicate ones thoughts, but to curate and share the thoughts of others. So today, I am going to share this article by Tim Challies. In it, he shares one of my favorite verses, as well as the very difficult applica

It's the final day, I'm packed and ready, and our flight leaves in under 5 hours (Lord willing). It's still not the time (nor do I have the time) to go into all the details and thoughts of the week, but I think that's ok. Mission trips are life-altering, and you don't write out a 3-5 paragraph blog to cover all of that without taking some time to dwell on it. But as for today, it started out bittersweet. Of course we're all ready to go home. Two of our team is able to do an e

One last night up on the roof in Peru. It's certainly been an interesting and eye opening experience this week, and it will be time til I am able to process it all. Photos as well. I've taken hundreds of photos this week, but the editing process will take some time. But the next step for me will most likely be to process the spiritual and emotional side of it. Coming on trips such as this, in my short experience, results in high emotions, and that takes some time to settle, a

As you probably gathered from my previous posts, I have had some thoughts and normal issues that come with being in a new place, etc. Today though, was a really nice visit to one of the other care centers for the organization we're helping. There we got to help with a vacation Bible school event, visit a family and share the gospel with them; and probably the most special moment for me was getting to share the gospel with a little girl. I don't say that to brag or anything li

On a trip like this, I suppose it's normal to have a variety of emotions. Part of me is, frankly, ready to go home. Another part of me isn't ready to go home at all. I think there's something emotionally settling about being in a place like this, for purposes like these; that is, sharing the gospel and helping others for the cause of Christ. But it's also challenging. There's the obvious challenges: a language barrier, cultural differences, and just being very busy. But there

Well, our first night in Peru has come to an end and I just wanted to share a few thoughts from the day. I could go through the events of the day, but I'll skip that for now other than a 30,000 foot view. Devotional in the morning, off to visit some families, and finally help with working with kids at a refuge. It's of course very interesting dealing with a language barrier. Several months of Duolingo really just evaporates when it comes to actually having to use what you've

The day started out early. The alarm I set was for 4:25 a.m., but as is often the case I woke up quite a bit beforehand. Last minute things around the house, pack the car, and head on. Half our team met at one house at 5:00 a.m. to head up to the train station, the rest met us there. Finally we ended up in Reagan national airport. Thankfully security was pretty simple, no issues. But you're probably not concerned with every minute by minute detail, are you? I'm noticing that

I recently wrote a post about packing, you can check that out here. Simple enough idea: work for the things that are eternal, because everything else you can't take with you. Now here I am, ready for a second trip, hoping I have everything packed that needs to be. It's easy to second guess, but eventually you have to just recognize you have it packed, somewhere. Our team leader for this mission trip sent a fitting message to our group this evening. In it he quoted a very help

I don't like posting photos before I'm 'done' working on them, but while this was edited on a flight, I decided I still wanted to share...

Me getting to meet Voddie Baucham at G3 It came as quite a shock yesterday, when I heard that one of my favorite preachers had passed...

Maybe not the greatest shot of a waterfall of all time, granted, but still a very pretty place nonetheless. What I recognize though is...