...you should listen to page cxvi.

Our old friends Latifah & Reid have created a fantastic album of re-tuned hymns. You should listen to it! Go to the Page CXVI website.

Page CXVI will be leading the singing during our worship service on July 12th.

...thank you God for the dog and kids.

I love my kids!

And I love Travis & Laura Ramos. Very good friends. Check out their blog post for more amazing photos of our amazing kids.

Let's Hit the Road This Weekend!

This dude is clearing the parking lot at the Alpine Visitor Center on Trail Ridge Road. Looks like there's enough snow up there for a few turns. Trail Ridge Road opened today.

ASPEN — Independence Pass, Aspen’s popular gateway to Leadville, Vail and other mountain towns, opens at 2 p.m. Thursday, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.

The opening of the eastern stretch of Highway 82 comes right before Memorial Day weekend. Last year the Pass did not open until June, while crews worked to clear snow.

Highway 82 over the 12,095-foot pass, east of Aspen, is closed during the winter because of weather conditions and deep snow.

DENVER, Colorado — The highway to the summit of Colorado's 14,264-foot Mount Evans will open for the season on Friday.

The Colorado Department of Transportation says the 15-mile stretch of Colorado 5 from Echo Lake to the summit will be open through the July Fourth holiday, weather permitting.

Transportation officials say the road will be closed on some weekdays after that to repair areas where frost heave has lifted asphalt surfaces.

The road is billed as North America's highest paved highway.

Jeremy Clarkson may be right when he says...

...that the new Honda Insight is "good only for parting the smug from their money."

Read his hilariously insightful review of this new hybrid car here.

I'm Headed to Estes Park

In a few hours, I plan to be in the Estes Park area for a few days of meetings, reading and learning.

Check out the Estes Park Visitors Center Webcam.

Just the lifts are closed.

This photo is from the webcam at A-Basin at 5pm today. The lifts don't close at A-Basin until June 7th.

Today, The Denver Post published an article about skiing through the spring and summer.

"It's still ski season. Just lift-riding season is over."

Amen!

Truth About Angels and Demons

I like Tom Hanks. Some of my favorite Tom Hanks movie roles are:
Jim Lovell in Apollo 13
Forrest Gump
Sheriff Woody in Toy Story & Toy Story 2
Joe Foxx in You've Got Mail
That spooky guy on top of the train in The Polar Express

Are you going to see Angels & Demons this weekend?

If so, check out this website for some helpful fact-checking: http://www.truthaboutangelsanddemons.com/

ambitions

This morning I enjoyed reading some missionary journals with The Dead Theologians Society. Here is a quote from David Brainerd that is fitting for this day of my life.

"Further, Take heed that you faithfully perform the business you have to do in the world, from a regard to the commands of God; and not from an ambitious desire of being esteemed better than others." - David Brainerd

It's Tough to Beat This Story

My friend Ben Conners and his beautiful wife Anna-Lisa came over for dinner tonight. Ben told us the story of his recent attempt to summit Aconcagua in Argentina. This is a tough story to beat.

We praise God for Ben and Ryan's safe return, and for how He is using this experience to shape each of them into the image of Jesus Christ.

Check out the lenticular cloud on Aconcagua in this photo. No one summited that day, of course!

Reading Amos Today

I'm reading Amos today, and here are some verses/phrases that struck me:

"The Lord roars from Zion" - Amos 1:2

"Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring, that we may drink!'" - Amos 4:1

"...yet you did not return to me." - Amos 4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11

"Seek me and live..." - Amos 5:4

"Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness and not light, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the sall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?" - Amos 5:18-20

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Amos 5:21-24

"O Lord GOD, please forgive!" - Amos 7:2

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land -- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD." - Amos 8:11

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed, the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cites and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them," says the LORD your God. - Amos 9-13-15

Dive-In Movie Party, May 28th

That's obsessive.

Mr. Rainer Hertrich, I salute you.

2000 consecutive days of skiing?

Nearly 66 million vertical feet?

That's obsessive.

Read the whole story in the Summit Daily News.

And Now We're Down to One

And we're down to one. Arapahoe Basin is the last ski resort open for the season. With Loveland, Wolf Creek and Echo Mountain closing over the weekend, the Basin's spring-early summer skiing is all that's left inside the ropes. The resort is holding on to a 61-inch base and will remain open seven days a week through June 7. FYI: Lifts are starting at 8 a.m. on the weekends, and Montezuma Bowl is still open.

Source: The Denver Post