Extreme Days

Pictures from Extreme Days, we had a blast!!

My Girls

Well, as you may have heard, there is a new member in the Franklin household. Her name is Alie and she is a pure-breed Australian Shepherd. She and and Chloe are getting along great and it is the best birthday present Chloe could have asked for.

1st Triathlon

Well, yesterday I "competed" in my first Triathlon in Medical Lake. It was the 25th anniversary of their sprint Triathlon called the Trailblazer. I finished in 1:18:00 which was good enough for 88th overall out of 260 or so. I was probably 40th out of the water and didn't do so hot on the bike. I thought this was going to be my strongest event, but just couldn't get my legs as fast as I though I would after the swim. By the time the run rolled around, I had caught my breath and was ready to run. Surprisingly my run was the best of the three events. The moral of the story is the hard work paid off and I completed my first Triathlon. I would highly recommend anyone do at least one triathlon in your life. It will change you not only physically from the training, but mentally when you scrape all your mental energy left at the end of the race to finish strong! The distance of the Sprint Triathlon is 1/4 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike and 3.5 mile run. 

-Travis

Bible Reading May 28th Galatians Ch. 4

Ok, I admit that I need to get better at reading everyday. It is so weird that when I have the most time (the weekends) I don't read, but somehow I can find time to fit it in before school on the weekdays. Why is that? Anyway, I am back and today I read from Galatians chapter 4.

In Paul's 4th chapter of wisdom to the Galatians he draws comparisons of our slavery to the "old law" when Christ brought us our new rule book when he came and died for us. He talks mainly about how our persecution and reliance on "comfortable" ways is like Abraham's two sons. It explains this well in verses 4:23-25,
"The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God's own fulfillment of his promise. These two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where the people received the law that enslaved them. And now Jerusalem is just like Mt. Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother."

It is interesting to think about at this time, but you have to remember what was happening at that time. Christianity was a relatively new idea then and was still being attacked constantly by the people of the Jewish faith because they didn't sanction it at all. So what Paul is trying to do here is a big deal. He is telling the people, "Look, Jesus brought us a new law to follow. People aren't going to necessarily going to love you for following his example and the new law he set out for us." It seems like a struggle reserved just for the people of that time, but think about today. How often do we consciously think about the choices we make and ask ourselves if we are following the new path Christ set out for us?

Paul goes on to sum up this topic in verses 30 and 31 saying, "But what do scriptures say about that? 'Get rid of the salve and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the the free woman's son.' So dear brothers and sisters, we are not the children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman." So, remember, no one goes to Heaven except through him, better hurry up and go through that door and make sure you hold it open for someone else as they try to get through as well!

The truth about food

Bible Reading May 23rd Galatians Ch. 2-3

Today's reading again comes from Paul's letter to the people of Galatia. He continues to preach on the importance of decision making but this section focuses mainly on whether or not to follow the Jewish law. Paul argues that the original law given to Moses by God was to, "show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised (Jesus). " (Ch 3:19). He also goes on to talk about the law being a guardian for us until we could be made right with God through faith instead of solely obedience to the laws. 

This is interesting to me because I still see the 10 commandments as pretty important for keeping order not just in the Christian world, but the entire world. I think you can argue that the commandments laid out by God to Moses are pretty universal truths held by just about everyone on the planet. Of course there are always those who chose to do their own mischief, but the majority of people would agree that murder is a bad thing and that you should enjoy what you have instead of lusting after what somebody else has.

I don't think Paul is telling us to not obey the laws at all by any means, I think he is just reaffirming the fact that faith in and love for Jesus Christ is the most important thing that any Christian can hope to have. He did say that no one will get to heaven except through him, and I for one am going to believe him on that.

Bible Reading May 22nd Galatians Ch. 1

Today's read came from Paul's letter to the people of Galatia. I love reading Paul's letters because he has such a great perspective on what it takes to follow Jesus. He states in verses 1:22-24, "And still the Christians in the churches in Judea didn't know me personally. All they knew was that people were saying 'The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!' And they praised God because of me." I think we see examples of this all over the news and in our own lives everyday. Who would you rather give you advice on a topic, someone who has lived and grown through an experience, or someone who has read a book or seen a movie about it?? We constantly look for an "authority" on the subject we are questioning or struggling with. 

The other verse from this chapter that caught my attention greatly was 1:10 when Paul is talking about the decisions he has made, and will ultimately continue to make, when he says, "Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." It is amazing to me how often I and people I see go out of our way to please people or even encourage behavior we know is not pleasing to God. I always find myself running things through a filter in my brain trying to equate behaviors to see if one is as bad as the other when I should be comparing it to whether or not it is pleasing to God. I am not saying I am perfect by any means, trust me, I'm not. But, I think the more we start to look at our decisions with the scope of what God thinks of what we are doing, we are making great strides. Like they always say, "The first step to solving a problem, is admitting that you have one". I think we could ALL admit that we have a problem when it comes to what we call acceptable in our society. 

My goal for this upcoming week is to more strictly monitor my actions and make sure that God is always at the center of what I am doing so that I may draw closer to him through it.