REAL CHANGE

It is nice to see some real change.

With 300 plus days of total sunshine here in Prescott it is great to see some change because of the Arizona monsoon season.

The monsoons are here in full swing and it is great to see our own kind of climate change.

Without the monsoons the forest would be as dry as a bone.

It seems even our Prescott National Forest here in Arizona is attempting to be politically correct by staying “green” as possible.

I think the whole earth has big a head start on all this “green talk”….it is the only green planet we have been able to find so far in the entire universe.

Ummmm, nice work God!

Life experiences

A 180 ALL DAY

Today I went to take a few photos of the sunflowers at Granite Basin Lake……and as usual I wasn’t disappointed.

According to Wikipedia, sunflowers do indeed follow the sun. They begin the day facing east and track the sun all day until they face west by nightfall. At night they reorient their flowers to once again face east.

I love this ! The sunflower, turns toward the sun and quite literally tracks its 180 degree path through the day. As the sun rises in the east the head of the sunflower turns east. As the sun travels to its transit the sunflower’s head moves until at noon it looks up, directly at the sun. And at the end of the day, its face is to the west, almost drooping as the sun slips beneath the horizon.

The Christian life is lived most effectively and powerfully as, like that sunflower, as we keep our faces turned to the Son who came to be the light of the world.

As we keep our lives focused on Jesus Christ, we live as children of the light. His light not only clothes and enlightens us, but is also reflected off of us into the lives of those around us.

I think I will follow Him all 180 during the entire day .

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:7 (NIV)

The sunflower…..amazing!

Life experiences

53 DAYS

It was a 53 day experience of not driving a car because of doctor’s orders.

For the past seven and a half weeks Brenda, Caleb, Natascha or anyone else that was willing drove me wherever I needed to go. God bless them all!

Today was the first day I drove myself to the office ….it was great to be back behind the wheel.

This is what it looked like to me driving into Prescott.

I’m sure everyone is glad to get a break from me telling them how to drive.

leadership

ἐνθουσιασμός – en-theos

I love this quote on leadership.

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next without losing your enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill

Enthusiasm (ἐνθουσιασμός) root – en-theos = in God. An enthusiast is a person inspired by god. *see: Biblical inspiration – (inspiration Greek – θεοπνευστος – Theopneustos = literally God breathed) When the early Christians would see someone convert to Christianity there was this overwhelming joy that followed the gift of Salvation but they had a problem there was no word to describe this feeling so they combined the two words (in God) creating the word (entheos) from which we get the English word Enthusiasm.

Long term leadership requires lots of “en-theos”!

books I'm reading again

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE BIKE

With all the credit going to Michael Phelps right now I thought I would reach back into my library and pull out a book about another of sports greats.

Lance Armstrong’s journey is one to look into.

Scarred physically and emotionally, Lance Armstrong considered his cancer “a special wake-up call,” one that crystallized for him the blessings of good health, family, friends.

The reasonn I’m reading this a second time is because this book is filled with the nutritional, physical, emotional, and spiritual details of his recovery, It’s Not About the Bike follows the amazing journey of one of America’s greatest athletes to a singularly inspiring appreciation of life lived to the fullest.

A must read for anyone going through challenges.

cycling, Mountain biking, what I am working on right now

FROM THIS TO THAT

Now that Mr. cast is off my right leg I can start some bike therapy.

This morning I am really excited because I set up a bike trainer some friends let me borrow for the next month or so.

Steve and Cindy over at Highgear Bikes have always been willing to do what ever it takes to help people in our community. Yesterday they provided me with one of their personal top of the line indoor bike trainers.

I have know these awesome people for about five years and about a year ago it was a great joy for me to perform their marriage ceremony up in Jerome.

As you can see, I have taken off the XTR clips and replaced them with the conventional peddles. I need to go from the clips to the conventional because of the ankle injury….SO going from “THIS TO THAT” is fine as long as it gets me to the place I need to go.

Thanks Steve and Cindy of Highgear Bikes for the help.

http://www.highgearbike.net/

Can’t wait to get back on the bike.

Ministry, what I am working on right now

LET’S GET LEGIT UPDATE

Last weekend we started into our “Let’s Get Legit” questions portion at the church.

It was really great to watch our church get involed in this experiement.

Here are the questios we attempted to tackle last weekend.

1. If a Christian is walking the “straight and narrow” and serving the Lord, yet they have a fight with someone and are angry when Jesus returns, do they go to Heaven?

2. If someone accepts Christ, but continues to live in sin are they truly saved?

3. Why did God/Jesus show himself visibly so readily in the Bible-yet not in our times? He desires to know us, but doesn’t let us see him. It’s like the people in the Bible had an advantage. Why did he leave the scene?

4. If God says do not murder as a commandment, where does war come in? There is war in the bible. Does the bible contradict itself?

5. In Genesis 29 Jacob marries Rachel & Leah. Solomon had 100’s of wives, and in other examples polygamy is a regular practice. So why is it not ok now? Was it ever ok? Why would God condone it by putting it in the Bible?

6. My niece says that when she went to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she started cursing…why?

7. If God forgives us, how do we learn to forgive ourselves of all the wrong choices we’ve made in the past, when it hurt family and kids?

The group on the pannel did a great job last week.

Our plan it to take this up to another level this week. The questions that came in are difficult but I know God has an answer for everyone’s honest legitimate questions.

Here is what we are diving into this weekend.

1. Why does God allow children to be abused, raped, beaten, and all else? That child didn’t have a choice.

2. Why are we taught to be selfless but to worship a selfish and jealous God?

3. When it comes to creation, were the 7 days actual 24 hour days?

4. If you committ suicide do you go to heaven or hell?

As you can see, we have our work cut out for us this week. Pray with us that God will no only help people’s faith but do some massive inner healing as well.

Remember, questions are not ment to be brick walls to our faith. Legitimate questions are opportunies to activate our faith.

Let’s get legit.

Mountain biking

SUPERHUMANS – Lance Armstrong Dave Wiens Leadville 100

Last weekend was the Leadville 100 with 1000 mountain bikers and climbs over 12000 feet.

Dave Wiens a 44 year old from Gunnison Colorado finished the race in under 7 hours in front of Tour De France super hero Lance Armstrong.

A personal favorite picture for me is this pic of Lance doing a Hike a Bike up the Cobra climb….Now I feel better about the Hike a Bike sections of the Whiskey Off Road here in Prescott.

Lance Armstrong/Dave Wiens 8/9/2008 on the Cobra climb

Great stuff.

Hope to attend this event someday

what I am working on right now

CASTAWAY

This is just a quick ankle update.

Yesterday Mary Beth who is Doctor Phluger’s assistant cut the cast off my right leg. When she finished she ask me if I wanted to keep it?

My response was……………. “throw the cast away.”

After the doc gave me the physical therapy options talk I knew I was making progress.

Here is a short list of the progress made yesterday.

1. I Started walking with only one crutch.

2. Went swimming at our pool for the first time this summer. (wow…pretending to be Michael Phelps was awesome.)

3. Took my first shower in 6 weeks. Good bye bathtub!

4. I put a sock on my right foot.

5. Today I will wear a pair of jeans to the office.

For the next few weeks I will become AQUAMAN!

what I am working on right now

CONNECTING RESOURCES

People connections are one of the most important resources we each have.

Think about it just for a moment…. what resources do we have to help us prosper, produce and move forward in this life?

I want to just suggest three right now.

The first one is a “natural”….we call it natural resources its what helps us get the familiar term “GNP” (gross national product) Measures of resources of national income and output are used in economics to estimate the welfare of an economy through totaling the value of goods and services produced in an economy.

Another resource is of the human kind. It the “human resources” that come from people. People who produce with their intelligence , their work ethic and just being a positive force on the globe can make someone a great human resource.

The third resource that is available to us is what I call a “divine resource”.

You might be asking what does a divine resource look like?

Here is the “readers digest” version of divine resource. It is God helping us accomplish what could not be done with out Him.

Its doing all you can do and letting God do what only He can do.

I love that. It really helps to know that we have multiple resources within reach to help us become all that God intends us to become.

NATURAL, RELATIONAL and SUPERNATURAL RESOURCES make life run so much better.

This week I re-connected with one of the best human resources of my life. I talked with my good friend of 25 years ago.

This is Jim Palmer and his family who came to visit us last summer.

Brenda and Renee at slide rock in Sedona

Our families had a great time at slide rock in Sedona. Our son Caleb is not in this photo because he was in school at the time

Thanks Jim for mentoring me in the “start stages of ministry” you are one of the finest relational resources in my life.

stevelummer.com

Author Archives: Lummer Steve