Heart Hope by Olga

Did you know that there are over forty references to God in the Bible as our Rock? I have always loved that imagery of God. To me it describes strength, power, firmness and even permanency. There are many types of rocks. There are small pebbles, there are river rocks, there are giant boulders and there are mountainous rocks.  Since there are so many different types you can choose how big your Rock is, but your choice may not be accurate. Is your God so small that you feel He can barely take care of your needs, much less the big stuff? Is your God big enough to help out in a pinch, but not really big enough to depend on daily? Is your God big enough to handle the universe, such as keeping the planets rotating in space, but since He is so busy with that He really doesn't have time to look out for you? Or is your God big enough to handles the universe, world affairs, your family and the nitty gritty details of your life? I believe that when God used the te...

A great summer morning, good friends and a beautiful mountain to hike—it just doesn’t get any better than this! While walking along the path to Shrine Pass God showed me how our lives often parallel the hike I was on. Since I had not been on this trail before, I started out with excitement and curiosity. Our lives are a lot like this, aren’t they? We begin our journey with great expectation about how wonderful it is going to be—free from hardship and hurts, but we quickly find out that things might not be just as we think they should be along the way. As I walked the path, there was beauty all around, but there were other things that could come in and steal the moment from me. There were gnarly dead trees that had been damaged by the wind, weather or fire and were really no longer good for anything. Some people end up like these stumps and logs. They allow the junk of the world to come in and kill and destroy the very life within and then become hardened and dry, not useful to anyone o...