Church

Here's a video we showed at church a few weeks ago featuring a good friend of mine and his story. Rick Bowers Service Testimony from Mountainview on Vimeo.

I'm not sure how it happened.  Somewhere between our old house and our new house, we lost our bathroom scale.  Technically, it's likely buried at the bottom of a box in the garage labeled "miscellaneous."  To be honest, I didn't miss it for the first few weeks (OK, maybe for a whole month). But that changed while shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond last week. Our old scale had been in the family since the time we got married.  Bed, Bath, and Beyond carries these new fancy scales.  Glass frames, digital displays.  I think you can even play Angry Birds on one of them. So I decided it was time to buy a new scale. I settled on two that were both glass frames and similar in price.  I took the first one and placed it on the ground: it registered 188 lbs.  Putting it back, I placed the second…

Here is a commercial that Hope and I shot to promote LifeGroup participation. Join a Lifegroup! from Mountainview on Vimeo.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." - Psalm 119:105* One of the best apps on my phone is the Flashlight app.  It turns the flash for your camera into a flashlight, allowing you to toggle between different levels of brightness.  It has saved me on more than one occasion when I needed to find my way -- or something I had dropped. Just like a real flashlight, it won't light up the entire area.  But it will light up enough of the area.  It will dispel enough darkness to allow me to move more freely than if I had no light at all.  Rather than grope along the wall, I can see far enough to take my next step. Psalm 119:105  reminds us that God's word is the best flashlight of all, illuminating our path better than we could for ourselves. Darkness…

A prophet's job is never dull.  Low pay.  Angry mobs.  Confronting those who have the power to put you in prison or have you killed.  No union benefits. Throughout Israel's history, the people have been on a roller coaster with God.  Obedient, blessed.  Rebellious, exiled.  And so it goes. In Isaiah 40, the prophet Isaiah challenges the attitude of his people.  Maybe you've been in a funk like this.  Work is hard.  Struggling to get out of bed.  Feeling abandoned by those around you -- feeling abandoned by God himself.  No answers.  No direction.  Silence. Here's how the Israelites feel: “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God" (Isaiah 40:27). They get no sympathy from Isaiah.  Instead, he asks, "Why do you say that?"  In other words, "Have you so quickly forgotten?"  "Have you lost your perspective?" He doesn't let them wallow in their…