One way I keep my little exercise outings fresh and real is to change them up and mix and match. I recently did that by way of mountain biking along the Tweetsie Trail in Johnson City with my bouldering pad on my back. This arrangement allowed me to try out some small outcroppings that I had seen and thought good for climbing when my son and I were there a week before (See that outing at “A Few Quick Miles“.) but would be beyond walking distance. The Tweetsie Railroad, begun in 1866, “the ET&WNC line… was to operate from Johnson City, Tennessee, to the iron mines just over the state line at Cranberry, North Carolina. (1)
On the way back from riding and climbing I took some pictures which you may see at “Tweetsie Special.”
For various reasons I am not able to explore big and faraway places, so I content myself with exploring little nearby places. When you find one within a mile from your workplace convenient for a lunchbreak jaunt, that is even better. Right in the middle of the industrial part of town arises a 200-foot hill that is about 3/4-mile long. Half of it has two steep streets with a few scattered houses clinging to the slopes and a large water tank in the middle. The far end is narrow and very steep sided, very impractical for housing. Someone had the insight to make it into a Mountain Bike Park. Hiking is also allowed on a few of the trails.
One lunchbreak recently I walked two of the trails to see how difficult they are. I was pleasantly surprised by the good variety of trees and wildflowers, the visual seclusion of the site with occasional machinery interrupting sounds, and the utter steepness of the slopes. I invited my son to come ride a few of the trails with me. Both were pleasant days. Check out my walk and biking pictures at Tannery Knobs Mountain Bike Park.
You can make plenty of plans, but circumstances may superintend them all. We had planned so many things outdoors when we were to visit our son for the weekend. We did do one chore before it rained. On Friday evening before supper we plopped a fourteen foot section of telephone pole into a four foot hole and tamped in dirt until it was solid and plumb. It rained lightly thereafter, so we ate supper and played with our granddaughter. The next morning we tamped in a second pole to within six inches of surface level before the rain came. So, instead of more outdoor activity, we went to a Book Barn of used books in a warehouse. I found a few good reads. Between the periodic hard showers pelting on the metal roof, the hypnotic classical music, and the row upon row of books it was quite relaxing. That evening during supper we watched a nice PG movie. Sunday morning we were challenged by a sermon from Acts 4 on praising God for the bright and dark providences. I hope to make further comment on that at a later date. After a big lunch we talked a few more hours before driving 4 hours home. Times with family can be so short but so meaningful. I hope that it encouraged our son and daughter-in-law as much as it did us and made our granddaughter as happy as it did us. Click on “Little Visit” to see a few pictures.
The day before “A Few Quick Miles“, I went on a hiking trip with a young friend from church with whom I had hiked “Through A Gorge” previously. I had actually wanted to do this hike for over thirty-five years. It is in an area now designated as Pond Mountain Wilderness Area. The draw for me was there were very few trails in the middle of this 6900-acre area. Going off trail can be challenging. I have numerous experiences with bushwhacking, some rewarding and some exhausting and very long. I have learned to avoid off trail in deep draws with creeks unless I have plenty of time, a specific goal, and a good exit strategy.* If you would like to see a few pictures of the trip, click on Pond Mountain.
*I should write a business plan based on bushwhacking.
A little too quick and more than one or two miles. My middle son and I went mountain biking this morning. Because there are several public trails nearby and one under the main road 1/2mile from his house, it is easy to get on multiple and various surfaces. This is the second time I have ridden with him. I have been trying to get into shape by riding a steep hill behind my house. It has increased my power, but riding with my son involves endurance. I am always lagging behind. So, I guess we keep it up and I will build endurance, too. If you can endure my pictures and commentary, check it out at Multiple Surfaces.
While listening to a radio preacher on the way to work a few weeks ago, he challenged his listeners to take a blank piece of paper and write on it as many single words as they could that come to mind when thinking about God. That evening I sat down in my rocking chair to do just that. Many words came to me. I soon realized that all of the words should be understood to be superlatives. For example, God is not merely knowing but all knowing. The next thought came that any word that was superlative should describe God. Immediately a caution flag arose in my conceptual vision. I should only use words that are either in Scripture or clearly describe ideas in Scripture. It took me about 40 minutes to make the majority of the list below. More words came in subsequent days as I read the Scriptures in my devotions or heard a sermon at church, on the radio, and online. You cannot tell which words were on the first 40-minute list because I decided to alphabetize them for the sake of making a study out of them. I further decided to separate out descriptive words from names of God. I hope that this list is useful to you in your thinking about and meditating on God. There was one difficulty in the exercise. I tried to limit myself to attributes of God’s character and not works He has done. Much of what we know about God through Scripture and the witness of Creation revolves around what God has done. Many of the attributes listed below concern what He does flowing from who He is. It is a fine distinction that I tried to adhere to.
As a suggestion, you might meditate on one word per day, looking up the verses listed. You could also look up cross references in the column of your Bible to find more related verses. As you consider the ideas, praise and thank God for being an excellent being in this area. Consider three things additionally: 1) How does this attribute of God modify or fortify my concept of who God is? 2) How does this concept increase my security in God and confidence for living for Him? 3) How does this idea about God increase my piety, both positively in godly living and negatively in mortifying the flesh and overcoming temptation?
Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. May you have a blessed Resurrection Day and recall the benefits of Christ’s resurrection more in the coming year.
When we think of real life, it is usually to opine about the difficulties and discouragements of the daily mundane, stressful accidents, and unpleasant interactions of our lives so different from out desired and naive perceptions at an earlier time. We must live with and grow through these experiences, but that is not the type of real life to which I refer.
In the sermon this morning, the elder preached from Romans 4:23-25, of which verse 25 says, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” He pointed out from this and other Scriptures that the resurrection is a necessary part of the Gospel, the good news about salvation. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.” (I Corinthians 15:14) Our justification was completed in Christ’s resurrection. I am not going to repreach his sermon, but if you are interested, it will be posted at https://www.christbiblechurchkingsport.com/media/ .
Rather, in the light of this sermon, the pastor closed the service urging us to go and live, quoting Romans 6:11: “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
The wheels of my mind and my spirit began to whirl with thoughts concerning what this means. We as Christians define many words biblically which is different than the world. For example, The world ever increasingly defines freedom as license to do what the individual wants to do. Some will realize the folly of this unbridled license and add ‘if it doesn’t hurt anyone’. Christian freedom is wholly different. Biblical freedom is the enabling of God in the believer to do what is right, which will be both glorifying to God and right for others as well as beneficial to the believer.
In a similar fashion, life is usually considered to be the ability to exist, survive, or even thrive in a way agreeable to the individual. But life in the biblical sense is a progression toward more of God and less of me (John 3:30). There are only two perspectives in the world: Unbelief and belief in the truth. Those who reject the Triune God and the salvation He provides are in daily existence trending ever more deeply into death (Romans 6:23a). Believers trend daily toward life as they believe and act on biblical truth. When the pastor said go and live, I understood him to mean that we should believe in the resurrection as our justification and live victoriously in it. That will mean both rejecting what is not right, piety, and striving for what is good and glorifying to God. “Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)… circumspectly, victoriously, publicly. He is risen! Live for Him and by Him.
My grandchildren are adorable. Well, I am a bit biased, but I am probably supposed to be. My wife and I got to spend half of our Saturday with seven grandchildren and their parents. Then we went out to eat for her sister’s birthday. It was quite the full day and good day. Check it out at Grins and Giggles.
The hymn that I have been enjoying recently, “Complete in Thee” (see last entry), keeps me considering how God has done “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Many thoughts and many of my best thoughts arise soon after I awake. The tune to “Complete in Thee” is catchy, so I composed another verse this morning before I even opened my eyes. I think that I would make it the last verse of “my version” of the song. Then awhile later I was reading my Bible when I came across Jacob responding to God’s call to return to Bethel (“House of God”): “…let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” (Genesis 35:3) God then blesses Him and “makes official” the angel (possibly pre-incarnate Christ) renaming Jacob Israel (Genesis 32:28). Two phrases grabbed me: “my distress” and “has been with me”. From that another verse to the song began forming. Perhaps I am not a very good hymn writer, but I cherish opportunities to give praise to God for all of His benefits (Psalm 103:2) delivered through His “manifold grace”. (I Peter 4:10)
My joy and peace ever increase My praise of Him will never cease All pure in heart His face I’ll see Before His throne, complete in Thee
He answered me in my distress And through the years and now does bless Grace manifold He gives to me My cup o’erflows, complete in Thee
Recently I have learned a new hymn, which is really not new having been published in 1850 by Aaron R. Wolfe. It so affected me that I sang it at home several times and began to add words. You may listen to the hymn at Complete in Thee and read about it at Hymnary.org. Following are the words that I added:
The tempter oft does me accuse By Christ’s great strength I may refuse The tempter’s snare and rather see Christ’s victory, complete in Thee
When hardship causes me to fear Inadequacies* then appear No condemnation now I see Christ all in all, complete in Thee
No longer now a slave to sin Over the flesh and world I win Your sacrifice has set me free Fully absolved, complete in Thee
Understanding and accepting my inadequacies, without allowing them to define me, keeps me humble and focused on God’s all sufficient grace, my only hope. I want to triumph through Him and by His grace to His glory. Do use the links above to learn this good hymn.
*In the second line of the second verse, “Inadequacies” is just the term that explains my go to reaction, but it doesn’t sing well. So, for the sake of singing, “My failures frequently” serves as a decent substitute.
It was in the low 20’s with a stiff little breeze. I was looking forward to going into a warm cave (usually 59 degrees at our latitude). From the moment I stepped inside I thought that it felt colder than outside. It turns out that among the many entrances are two large ones, one a collapsed chamber at the top of the hill and the other one where the creek exits, plenty large enough to walk in upright. This arrangement makes for a nice chimney with a good draw of very cold air on this particular morning. At one point the guide was saying that a narrowing in the passage has been measured to have lower barometric pressure and “they” don’t know why. It was too simple. I explained Bernoulli’s Principle and how the narrow section of passage acts as a venturi in a carburetor. The faster the wind, the lower the pressure. It is also interesting that the seven species of bats (five of which are endangered) in this cave are not being decimated by the White Nose Fungal outbreak among bats. The regular exchange of fresh air is probably the reason. The cave also sits at a transition zone where sedimentary and igneous rock are interlayered. Of the several dozen caves that I have been in, it seems to be the most geologically diverse. I enjoyed the tour with my daughter and two grandchildren. It was supposed to be a 45 minute tour, but between Mr. G’s* enthusiasm and knowledge of the cave and our curiosity and general knowledge, the tour was more like 1:45. We as well as he professed to having learned a lot. Check out my pictures at AC Underground and then check out the Appalachian Caverns Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/appalachian.caverns)
*If you want to ask for a tour guide whose name begins with G, then I would recommend him. I don’t name people on my blog.
I didn’t say etymology because this is not about how a word came to be or changed in form or meaning over time. Instead, this is an anecdote about word usage where the word and its meaning has not changed but the situation referred to has changed. That sounds rather confusing until you hear the story.
Have you ever wondered why the container for beans or corn or soup or tomato paste is called a tin can. The obvious answer is that it is made of tin, or used to be anyway. Preserving food and other substances in cans began in 1810 with the invention of the tin can. By 1813 the first tin can factory was canning food for the military in England (1,2).
Why was tin used? It has a high corrosion resistance and a low toxicity (3). Already by 1818, cans were beginning to be merely tin-plated rather than entirely tin. Today, cans are plastic lined to seal them and prevent corrosion. There was a period of time when BPA’s and other plastics were used that are problematic for health, but that has gone away.
So, steel cans are still called tin cans even though almost no cans were even tin lined after the 1950’s. Though I have wondered about the persistence of this term, tin can, for many years, I regained heightened interest in the subject when I went to recycle metals the other day. Check it out at, “Where do I put steel and other metals?”
What word usages can you think of that are leftovers from long gone situations?
In celebration and thanksgiving at my newest granddaughter’s safe arrival and for the purpose of blessing her based on her given name, I offer these few lines of verse. These poems come with prayers for salvation, purity, witness, and safety for my posterity.
Graced with God’s bounty fair Oh, may it be Miss Annalise With others plenty share What you receive also release
Copious intense joy From God’s supply Felicity No shadow of alloy A pure heart, no duplicity
This world an evil place Will try to drag you down for sure But trusting in His grace Know well God in Christ and be pure
Inner beauty reveal In the midst of troubles and pain That Christ become more real And the Gospel become more plain
So a true Francis be In all faith and freedom in Christ That people clearly see God’s riches in Christ sacrificed
I repeat myself a considerable amount on this blog, but it is a product of what I’m thinking (and maybe the beginnings of senility?). Anyway, repeating truth is a good thing. I love the “manifold grace of God” that He abundantly pours out on us for serving others. A full and running over cup is, well, full. I am overflowing with the arrival of my 12th grand-child. God has been so good to my family. Check out the pictures of my 6th Granddaughter.
I went for a hike with a new friend from church. He just moved here from Southwest Washington state. So, get him out in the East Tennessee woods. I asked him how similar the woods and mountains are to where he came from. He said there are mostly conifers there but that the moisture levels and undergrowth are similar, though wetter in the winter in the winter there. If you would like to see a few pictures of our outing, then click on “On Through“.
The two brothers and the two old men went for a mountain bike ride. I had claimed that I would dig my bike out of storage and repair it to go sometime, but it has not yet become a priority. My young friend from church graciously decided to offer that I ride his “spare” bike. It was far nicer than any bike I could ever imagine owning. I will still need to get my bike out and actually make an attempt at getting into shape. We had a fun, and at moments, intense ride on steep climbs and rocky descents. It had been so long since I had been on a mountain bike. It was good to cycle back around to this activity. Check two group pictures at “A Few Friends“, one of the guys, and one of the one guy’s family.
What are the most common sights on a hike? Yep, the title says it. That raises three why questions in my mind: 1) Why is that so? 2) Why would a sane person sign up for that? 3) Why, if these are most common sights, do you not remember these the most?
Answers: 1) Well, what you see most is what you look at most. The rougher the trail, the more you have to look down. Thus, rocks, roots, and puddles are your most common sight. 2) You have a goal or goals in mind: a view or unique destination to explore; exercise; clear your mind; enjoy the outdoors; spend a more relaxed, slower time with friends or family, or even alone. 3) The mind has an amazing ability to focus on what is desirable and profitable and shunt what is useless and painful. Shunting, as I see it, does not mean forgetting. It means storing out of conscious memory.
My daughter, son, his father-in-law, and I took a somewhat unique hike this morning. They came from the East and I came 1 1/2 hours from the West. We met at 6:45 to begin the hike. We even planned it on a day slated for rain. Click on Calloway Peak to see how it went.
It has been a good week, a busy week, but somehow not a good busy, at least from the perspective of getting as much done as I would have liked. When these things happen, one needs to consider what has gotten done. I was surprised to recollect that many of the things accomplished were of a more eternal nature, and therefore a greater good than what I thought I wanted to accomplish. You know what I mean?
Well, last Sunday the preacher was still preaching in Philippians 1. There is so much there, and he is in no hurry. As he was filling out the dual themes of humility and unity in Paul’s pleas to the Philippi church, and indeed in Scripture at large, I was trying to come to a conclusion as to how to put it all into a simple, concise form for my little brain, sort of an applicational nugget for future reference. My mind thinks in diagrams, or flowcharts as I like to call them. Following is my condensed version of all that he said. Simplification has its multiple dangers, not least of which is over-simplification. And furthermore, my diagrams, though I believe true, are not exhaustive nor universally applicable. For example, in the following diagram, gratitude can certainly be gotten at from differing circumstances and thought patterns, as may most everything in the flowchart. These disclaimers having been said, check this out and compare it to Philippians 1, especially verses 27 to 30:
Do you cherish quiet, alone time? It can be a great benefit to calm and focus the soul. Don’t push it away with noise of music and voice, dear reader. Lean into contemplative moments of quiet. It will make your time with others more enjoyable and meaningful. I had a short time in the woods to quiet my spirit. Check out my pictures and reflections at Laurel Falls.
I have nearly completed an abridged version of John Owen’s book, “The Glory of Christ.” (1) The book lifts your gaze from the mundane and glitzy things of this Earth to a deeper vision of who Christ is in His humanity. Theologically I did not learn much but devotionally I was challenged to a new level of pursuit of God.
On page 33, Owens writes, “It is impossible that someone who never meditates with delight on the glory of Christ here in this world, who does not make every effort to behold it by faith as it is revealed in Scripture, should ever have any real gracious desire to behold it in heaven.”
This statement and similar ones jolted me. Though the statement above could be applied to all Christ is in His divinity and humanity, Owen spends most of his time talking about Jesus’ humanity. Why do I not meditate and revel in the glory of Christ’s humility, willing submission, lowliness of life, and cruel death. Why could I not? As I read these things I came to realize the problem was not in ignoring or undervaluing what He did for me. Rather, I did not understand these things to be glorious. Glory in Hebrew is Kabod, meaning “heavy”. So, God’s glory is heavy or substantial. We think of brightness and omnipotent and exalted and incessantly praised and sovereign. These things come to mind when I think of the glory of God. Here Owens was urging me to see poverty, humility, and submission to death as glorious. Considering His willingness, facility, and power in carrying them out, indeed, they are glorious. I was pushed to consider them in a different way.
In consideration of my need for a mindset shift about how I considered Christ’s glory, I wrote the following poem:
Glory in lowliness Who would have thought? Supreme humility Salvation brought
Glory seen in brightness I would have thought But here He was in flesh No fanfare sought
Glory means weightiness Substantial thought Yet His work as Savior Our poor souls bought
Glory submissiveness Opposing thought? But here He was dying Salvation wrought
Glory in humbleness Meek in all thought His pattern and decree While here He taught
Glory of God’s likeness Oh blessed thought In all He is and did Him we exalt
“The Glory of Christ” by John Owen, abridged and made easy to read by R.J.K. Law, first published 1684, abridged edition 1994, reprinted 2018, Puritan Paperbacks. (Not a very proper bibliography, but more than enough to find it online.)
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