Back to the Tracks

This blog is entitled "On the tracks" because of the picture above, taken near Mount Hermon Conference Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There as a child of 5 or so, my heart said yes to the God who had already said yes to me, and the faith in which my parents raised me became my own.

12 days ago I fulfilled a longtime wish and revisited that place with my family. I took a walk on the tracks with ElenaClaire and with Miles.

Before we left I knelt in prayer on those tracks, and only two things tumbled out of my heart: "Thank you" and "Yes". Yes to Christ; to His gospel; to His call and plan for mylife; to whatever the future may hold.

July 25

Having returned from a very nice vacation in California, I've uploaded pics to a drop site for those of you who might enjoy seeing the Lindholtz gang's family pics. There were too many to put on the family pic blog. I just discovered this site from a friend and it's a good way to share stuff. No sign ups, no email requested.

Next week Alicia and Miles head to Cape Cod for a week with her family. I am jealous. But I'll be busy every evening working on the score for a movie.

Sunday, July 13

• I preached at CTK for the first time today. Here's the link to the podcast page.

• Tomorrow morning we're off for 10 days in California. Looking forward to time with all of my family; with some of my friends from High School; and with other friends as well.

• The link is up at Miles' page for SMILES FOR MILES on October 3.

Declaring Faith

As Mark and I are preparing worship for Sunday, we wanted to come out of Covenant Pastor Andrew Thompson's "We've Come to Worship", which includes the line "Trading our shame for your holiness", include a short confessional piece, and move into the song "Trading my Sorrows".

Here's the confession component:


Leader: All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.

People: I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.

Leader: But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love.

People: In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

Leader: You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make us rich:

All: Beauty for ashes,a joyous blessing instead of mourning,festive praise instead of despair. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Isaiah 53:6 Psalm 51:3 Nehemiah 9:17 Ephesians 1:7, 2 Corinthians 8:9, 9:15, Isaiah 61:3


(into "Trading my Sorrows")



Then after "Trading my Sorrows", we wanted a brief affirmation of faith that would connect the repetition of "Yes Lord" in the song with biblical truth:



Leader: The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 40:28)

People: Yes, Lord! Amen!

Leader: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)

People: Yes, Lord! Amen!

Leader: He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)

People: Yes, Lord! Amen!

Leader: All of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” ascends to God for his glory.
(2 Cor. 1:20)

(return to song: Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Yes Lord…)

Monday, July 7

Miles and ElenaClaire are at Camp Rainbow this week. Camp Rainbow is a diabetes day camp experience. Kids like Miles can’t go to overnight camps because of their medical conditions, but Camp Rainbow is fully staffed by medical professionals and volunteers from Texas Medical Center. Miles began when he was only 4, and he has 2 more years before he hits 13, after which he can only go as a Junior counselor. ElenaClaire has been going for years as junior counselor, then as junior medical staff. This year she is the senior medical staff for the 12 and 13 year old group. Even though she’s only finished one year of college, she is the only one in that particular team of volunteers that has been to Camp Rainbow before, and besides that, of course, she’s been helping to care for a diabetic brother for 10 years. I call that the equivalent of a doctoral degree in pediatric diabetic care. (She asked the group of volunteers “Who has ever used a glucometer before?” No hands went up. So she’ll be leading and training a team of newbies.

We’re beginning to “gear up” for our annual JDRF fundraiser, SMILES FOR MILES. Every year we do a poster based on an album cover by a well-known band dear to our hearts. Here’s this year’s poster.

Our trip to California looks like the pieces will fall in place nicely next week. We expect to spend lots of time with family, and also with friends who live in the vicinity, including trying to find the place on the railroad tracks where the picture at the top of this blog was taken.

My last ministry assignment before vacation is to preach here at Christ the King – a privilege I have never been afforded. Not out of lack of confidence; but we have three pastors on staff, plus an accredited Director of Christian Education, all of whom are excellent communicators. There’s rarely a time when one of them is not available. But our Senior Pastor invited me to preach here – I regularly preach on a monthly basis at a struggling little church plant about 10 miles south of us. So it’s a blessing to have this opportunity. (I’ll also be preaching at a Vespers Service the following Sunday at University retirement Community in Davis, where my parents live.)

As I was writing this, a little spider came down on a web not more than 3 inches from my nose. THAT was interesting!