Mtb Race Pic

Last week was the non-points race kick off to the DINO Series. It was muddy and there were not many people there compared to last year...but I was there! And another trusty teammate of mine. I won't even go into the details but ends up on my first lap of 3 I topple over my handlebars going down hill and crush my shoulder on the gravel trail. Ends up I separated my AC joint. But 4 guys pass me as I stand for about 90 seconds there and assess the damage. I could still move my arm though it hurt so I jump back on the bike and go. By the third lap I've caught up and passes three of the four guys and end up 4th in Sport (out of 11). I like to say I would've been first if I hadn't of wrecked but anyway. Here's a link to a picture that was taken of me on my first lap at the race. Enjoy. http://www.dinoseries.com/photos/tuneup/TU0460.jpg

fear-of-the-what? II

To continue the conversation a bit farther on the fear-of-the-lord Peterson notes that none of the available synonyms in the English language- awe, reverence, worshipful respect - seem quite adequate. They miss the punch delivered by "fear-of-the-lord" Ok, so what do we do from here? Well he gives us some ideas of how to cultivate the fear-of-the-lord. AND ISN'T THAT WHAT WE REALLY WANT MORE THAN BEING ABLE TO UNDERSTAND OR EXPLAIN IT?!!
"The primary way we cultivate it is in prayer and worship - personal prayer and corporate worship. We deliberately interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to God, place ourselves intentionally in sacred space, in sacred time, in the holy presence - and wait. We become silent and still in order to listen and respond to what is Other than us. Once we get the hang of this we find that this can occur any place and any time. But prayer and worship provide the base"
Peterson says, "Fear-of-the-lord" is the best term we have to point to this way of life we cultivate as Christians." Basically, A world has been opened up to us by revelation in which we find ourselves walking on holy ground and living in sacred time. The moment we realize this, we feel shy, cautious. We slow down, we look around, ears and eyes alert for what God is saying or doing. The moment we find ourselves unexpectedly in the presence of the sacred, our first response is to stop in silence. We do nothing. We say nothing. We fear to trespass inadvertently; we are afraid of saying something inappropriate. Plunged into mystery we become still, we fall silent, all our senses alert. This is the fear-of-the-Lord.

Or we don't...

More later.

Fear-of-the-what?

LORD! What's up with the Fear-of-the-Lord? Eugene Peterson says this "stock biblical phrase" is just what we need when we wonder how it is that we live responsively and appropriately before who God is, who he is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And isn't that what, we who have been redeemed by Jesus, want to do?
Well, it turns out that the meaning of this phrase/word is illusive and maybe that's a bit of a good thing. We can't simply file it away and box it up in our mental dictionary.
First let's clear the slate and understand that fear-of-the-lord is a "bound phrase". It's four words in English (two in Hebrew) that are bound together, making a single word. Here's the deal. The meaning of this new single word is not the sum of all its defined parts, fear+of+the+lord. Fear-of-the-lord is a word all its own. We don't look up "fear" then "God" in the dictionary. Doing that gets us way off track according to Peterson.
Just consider that for a couple days and I'll add more content later.

Ps. There are around 138 occurrences of this word mostly in Proverbs, Psalms, Isaiah, Chronicles and Duet' Duet' Deuteronomy! Take a look!

Wisdom from Mother Teresa

The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is shalom.
- Mother Teresa

Guess The City