#photography Archives - Pathway Fellowship

Coffee anyone?

Posted on Apr 15, 2016 in Devotions, Pastor Mike's Thoughts | Tags: #10/40window, #beafollowerofchrist, #believers, #cominghome, #conservative, #declineofUS, #diedoncross, #GodhelptheUSA, #Godislove, #jesuschrist, #loveGodloveall, #loveoneanother, #MikeGoodyear, #moversandshakers, #muslimcountries, #pastorgoodyear, #pastormike, #pathway, #pathwayfellowship, #photography, #Pray, #prayer, #racism, #stophate, #teachkidslove, #thethinkingman, #timeinabottle, #underthesamesky, #values

Apr '16

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A group of young adults got together at a friend’s home.

They talked about a lot of things but soon the conversation turned into complaints about politics, stress in work, trouble in our country & life.

The host offered his guests coffee. He went to the kitchen where he had already prepared the coffee. He picked out a number of different cups and mugs, as he had a good collection. Some were porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some exquisite. He brought it into the room with sugar and cream telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

After everyone had chosen a cup, and began to drink their coffee, the host remarked to the group. “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for us to want only the best for ourselves, that is the source of our problems and stress.

“Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it’s just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup. But, subconsciously, we go for the best cups…and then we began eyeing each other’s cups.

“Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and, the politics, our position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.

God brews the coffee, not the cups. Let’s enjoy our coffee.”

When a family suffers a devastating fire in their home a number of things transpire. There is the immediate shock followed by the sense of loss when you start to realize all that was destroyed. The task of sorting through the rubble, is often a very painful task. People often have to move out of the house right away due to health issues or safety problems. That change in itself can be very demoralizing.

At some point you begin to focus on what is really important in life.

It always comes down to loved ones and relationships. You realize that your life was not the house of the things in it. Job, in the Old Testament, experienced this in a major way that. God forbid we will ever have to experience such a nightmare.

The house the clothes, the possessions, were just the cups that hold our lives. God is most concerned about His beloved children.

The cups they come and go. Sometimes in life the cups are beautiful and precious. At other times they are downright disappointments.

But through it all, it is the “coffee” that is important, what God is brewing in our lives.

Fortunately, we know the end of the story. These cups here are only temporary. Jesus is preparing a new cup for us, that will be glorious and it will carry this precious gift of life into all eternity.

Enjoy your coffee,

Pastor Mike

Time in a bottle

Posted on Sep 10, 2014 in Looking forward | Tags: #drmikegoodyear, #MikeGoodyear, #pastorgoodyear, #pastormike, #pathway, #pathwayfellowship, #photography, #pictures, #timeinabottle

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I have often wondered what makes photography so fascinating for me.

Beyond the obvious of capturing images that are beautiful and emote some kind of passion in my senses, there is the whole realm of time, and trying to capture it in an image. In photography in some enigmatic way we can stop time and forever keep that moment. At least that is what it feels like. As a result I have spent most of my adult life photographing my family, capturing precious moments in time. And now as I look at my grandchildren through the lens of a my Nikon (affectionately called “Wynona”) with a 64 gig memory card, realizing that I can take literally 1000’s of high quality photo’s at no cost, every moment seems the right time to capture their time.

At a season in life when the months and years seem to fly by there seems to be more urgency in my work. And now I have 10’s of 1000s of images all stored and backed up in portable hard drives that hold terabits of memories, time in little bottles. I do not have the time to edit them all, so I keep telling myself, that someday, maybe when I retire, I will devote myself to this task, leaving my family with a visual record of years gone by.

As I consider the idea of time passing by so swiftly, the clock continues to tick as if in a countdown mode until my departure into a world where there will be no moments in time to capture. Time will not exist and our minds will be able to recall all of the beautiful moments in God’s Paradise without the aid of technology. And in this fallen world, there will eventually come that day, when all of my earthly efforts will no longer be meaningful, and ultimately destroyed.

Ravi Zacharias says:

“[Time] never moves forward without engraving its mark upon the heart—sometimes a stab, sometimes a tender touch, sometimes a vice grip of spikes, sometimes a mortal wound but always an imprint.” The Lotus and the Cross

To be sure, the capturing of those special moments is a great treasure as we live in this world. As the ravages of time erode everything but our souls,

we can look back and “remember when”. That can bring warmth to the heart, or tears to the eye, but always with a sense that what was, will not be lost. If it were not important God would not have given us the ability to recall those momentous events in life.

But all of this will fade away into meaninglessness as we enter into the presence of God and begin a new life, a perfect life, in a new world, pristine in all of its glory. There will be no more sin, no more hurt, no more betray or anger, no more tears.

Will we remember those times back in an old fallen world? No. Not only will we not remember, but we won’t want to call up those events. Why should we? Even the brightest moments on earth will seem to be dark in comparison to the glories of God’s eternity. C.S. Lewis writes about this brilliantly in his book, The Great Divorce. The greatest loves of this world will be far surpassed by the greatest love that time has known, the Love of Jesus for His own. What a wonderful Family that will be!

That is why Paul who had a little taste of heaven said,

2 Cor. 5:4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed

but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

1 Cor. 15:54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

Laus Deo – Pastor Mike

Coffee anyone?

Time in a bottle

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