For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
– Thessalonians 2:4-6 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: California, faith, forest, God, Jesus Christ, life, local, love, nature, photography, salvation, wilderness
| 1⁄3 | c | instant rice |
| 2 | T | vegetable soup mix (knorr) |
| 1⁄4 | c | diced dehydrated vegetable blend |
| 1 | T | crumbled dried mushrooms |
| 1 | T | diced dried onion |
| 1⁄4 | t | worcestershire sauce powder |
| 1⁄4 | t | diced dried garlic |
| 2 | c | water |
At home pack all the dry ingredients in a small bag or quart freezer bag.
FBC method:
Add 2 cups hot water to the bag. Seal tightly and put in a cozy for 15 to 30 minutes.
Insulated mug method:
Ad the dry ingredients to your mug, add 2 cups boiling water. Cover tightly and let sit for 15 minutes.
One pot method:
Add the dry ingredients to the water in your pot. Bring to a boil, take off the stove and cover tightly. Let sit for 15 minutes. In cool temperatures use a pot cozy to keep warm.
Add salt and pepper to taste, as desired or sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: backpacking, food, health, hiking, local, recipes, soup, survival, vegan
“I was awakened by a tremendous earthquake, and though I hadn ever before enjoyed a storm of this sort, the strange thrilling motion could not be mistaken, and I ran out of my cabin, both glad and frightened, shouting, “A noble earthquake! A noble earthquake” feeling sure I was going to learn something.”
-John Muir
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: beauty, books, conservation, earth, enviroment, health, hiking, John Muir, life, literature, local, mountains, nature, personal, photography, spirituality, travel
Personally, I find one of the most startling things Jesus says tucked away at the end of the fourteenth chapter of John. He is preparing his closest friends (and soon-to-be-successors) for his departure. They still don’t believe or don’t want to believe he’s leaving. Here is what Jesus says to them (and to us):
“Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
Wait—do not let your heart be troubled? I thought to myself, We have a choice? We let our hearts be troubled? I’ve always assumed it was the other way around—that trouble strikes in some form or other, and our hearts simply respond by being troubled. I’ll bet this is how you look at it, too. Trouble descends upon you: your house is robbed, your daughter gets pregnant, you lose your job. In that moment are you thinking, “This doesn’t have to take me out. I’m not going to let my heart be troubled. No way”.We think “troubled heart” is unavoidable, appropriate even. But Jesus is talking about his coming torture, his death, and, following that, his departure from them. On a scale of personal crises, this is a ten. Yet he says, don’t let your hearts be troubled.
Friends, this is important.
You have a say in what your heart gives way to
-John Eldredge, The Utter Relief of Holiness, 117-18
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: beauty, Bible, books, faith, God, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, life, literature, love, mountains, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, travel
The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions.
-1 Timothy 1:5-6 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, Christianity, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, local, love, nature, personal, photography, salvation, waterfalls
| 3⁄4 | c | instant mashed potatoes |
| 1 | T | dry milk |
| 1 | T | butter powder |
| 1 | T | sour cream powder |
| 2 | flour tortillas | |
| 2 | pkt | salsa |
| 1 | oz | cheddar or cojack cheese |
| 1 | c | water |
At home:
Bag the dry ingredients in a pint freezer bag. Put the tortillas in a tightly sealed plastic bag. Tuck in the salsa and cheese with everything.
On trail:
Freezer bag method:
Add the hot water to the quart freezer bag. Stir well, seal and let sit while you prep the cheese.
Insulated mug method:
Add the dry ingredients to your mug along with the boiling water. Stir well and let sit while you prep the cheese.
For both methods:
Slice the cheese up. Lay down a section of clean paper towel. Place your tortillas down. Spread the mashed potatoes between the two tortillas. Top with cheese, then salsa. Roll up and eat.
Posted in Backpacking Recipes | Tags: backpacking, food, health, hiking, life, local, recipes, survival
“Wherever forests have not been mowed down, wherever the animal is recessed in their quiet protection, wherever the earth is not bereft of four-footed life – that to the white man is an ‘unbroken wilderness.’
But for us there was no wilderness, nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly. Our faith sought the harmony of man with his surroundings; the other sought the dominance of surroundings.”
-Chief Luther Standing Bear
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: beauty, books, conservation, earth, enviroment, health, hiking, life, literature, local, love, mountains, nature, personal, photography, spirituality, survival, travel
I knew a man who was fired from his job at a Christian high school because one of the church elders saw him purchasing cigarettes at the local grocery store. They canned him, even though he was the best teacher they had. Now, first off, the Bible does not prohibit smoking. But this has become a favorite of the technical morality police in certain churches. What is even more diabolical about the story is the pleasure these Pharisees had in firing the young teacher. Their judgment was swift and severe; their self-righteous smugness was far sicker than this guy smoking a cigarette. Jesus calls this straining gnats but swallowing camels (Matthew 23:23-24).
The poison of technical rule-keeping is that it shifts the focus from serious issues to ridiculous peccadilloes, thus allowing the legalist to live what he believes is a “righteous life” when in fact he is failing at the very things God majors in. Take as an example a man who hates his wife; he resents her. But he has never committed adultery; he is “faithful” to her. He prides himself on his selective morality—keeping the letter of the law while ignoring massive problems in his heart. Is this holiness?
Ask yourself what it would take for a person to get fired from your church, your Christian school or ministry. What is your church’s understanding of holiness? What are the categories they are thinking in? It is a very revealing test. The scriptures say that the way you treat people is a little more important than whether you smoke, for heaven’s sake. Pride and arrogance are far more serious issues than swearing; idolatry and hatred are far more serious than how fast you drive.
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: Bible, books, faith, God, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, life, literature, love, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, survival
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
-Hebrews 10:23-25 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: Canada, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, love, mountains, nature, personal, photography, rainbow, salvation
If you learned about Eden in Sunday school, with poster board and flannel graphs, you missed something. Imagine the most beautiful scenes you have ever known on this earth-rain forests, the prairie in full bloom, storm clouds over the African savanna, the Alps under a winter snow. Then imagine it all on the day it was born.
It’s Tolkien’s Shire in its innocence, Iguazu Falls in the garden of The Mission, the opening scene of The Lion King.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Into this world God opens his hand, and the animals spring forth. Myriads of birds, in every shape and size and song, take wing-hawks, herons, warblers. All the creatures of the sea leap into it-whales, dolphins, fish of a thousand colors and designs. Thundering across the plains race immense herds of horses, gazelles, buffalo, running like the wind. It is more astonishing than we could possibly imagine. No wonder “the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). A great hurrah goes up from the heavens!
We have grown dull toward this world in which we live; we have forgotten that it is not normal or scientific in any sense of the word. It is fantastic. It is fairy tale through and through. Really now. Elephants? Caterpillars? Snow? At what point did you lose your wonder at it all?
Even so, once in a while something will come along and shock us right out of our dullness and resignation.
We come round a corner, and there before us is a cricket, a peacock, a stag with horns as big as he. Perhaps we come upon a waterfall, the clouds have made a rainbow in a circle round the sun, or a mouse scampers across the counter, pauses for a moment to twitch its whiskers, and disappears into the cupboard. And for a moment we realize that we were born into a world as astonishing as any fairy tale.
A world made for romance.
-John Eldredge, Epic, 44-45
Picture Credit: Mike Putnam
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: beauty, books, God, health, hiking, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, literature, love, mountains, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, travel
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