Mystery Train

Go ahead and plug your ears
Erase the noise that fuels your fears

Live life long and love it hardy
Hell, they say, is just a party

Just crank the tunes that swell your head
And mute the God of ancient dread

Lest way down-deep inside your brain
You hear the haunting mystery train

Speeding down the tracks toward you
So soon, too soon, comes judgment due

Yet remains hope for the humble
Some become new and others will stumble

A cradle, a cross, a grave and a crown
God came from Heaven to turn us around

That we might no longer be orphans in space
But His children in love, forever by grace.

Faking Blindness

Blind, or not willing to see?
Some cannot and some agree. 
Broken eyes we sympathize, 
but closed implies a cruel disguise.
Cause all the girls and all the guys,
are scared deep down to cause a rise,
And suffer life's most cruel demise: 
death by unpopularity.

Magic Mirror

Men of all sizes see themselves tall,

Avoiding the king who died for them all.

They laugh and they loot and they fight and they brawl,

In love with a mirror that lies to them all.

Designer World View

A myth or pop wisdom, a god or a while,

We now choose our world-view as fashion and style.

The old rugged cross seems the only exception,

Too hard to contemplate from our perception.

Mosaic

Father and mother raise a child,

Our age it seems has been beguiled.

A mosaic of social cacophony tiled,

Depicting boys and girls gone wild. 

Oakley Jesus

Oakley Jesus

Put sunglasses on to make it less bright,

It hurts our eyes to go out in God's light.

My Oakley-brand Jesus sure looks cool to wear,

Pretend the hard Scriptures are not even there. 

-Robert Engelhardt

Thanks for Generosity in 2012

The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25 NLT)

Thank you for your generous support of Catskill Mountain Christian Center in 2012. Your friendship has fueled the turbine generators of CMCC, producing an ever-increasing current of life, hope, goodness and grace. From our most basic work as a living church community, the love of Jesus Christ is carried, like a power grid, to our programs and services reaching the local community, greater region and even to the remote corners of the world. Through your giving in 2012, God is glorified, the Gospel is preached, the weak are strengthened, the poor enriched, the suffering comforted and the brokenhearted restored. Praise God and thank you, thank you, thank you!

We had many highlights in 2012 but I especially enjoyed our summer bluegrass concert series. Offered as a way to lift up the spirits of our broken community in the wake of the devastating flood of August 28, 2011, CMCC hosted a free concert each Wednesday evening throughout the summer of 2012. Hundreds of neighbors attended over the season to enjoy the live bluegrass music and our old-fashioned, mountain hospitality. A new gazebo on our CMCC lawn as a stage created a perfect setting and as the sun went down each week behind our beautiful chapel, I felt like I was standing in a Thomas Kinkade painting!

I will always remember: folks gathered around the gazebo on lawn chairs, neighbors chatting with one another, families sitting together on blankets, children playing on the back lawn, a fiddler tearing up the old bluegrass standard, “Orange Blossom Special,” our CMCC youth group selling refreshments, everyone smiling and just enjoying being together. Truly a slice of Americana at its best and furthermore, a pure expression of love for our neighbors!

Thank you once more for making this life and all of the blessings of CMCC possible!