CIY Wilderness

Once again, I will be heading to Colorado for CIY Wilderness. As a result, this week will be a slower week around JeffRandleman.com. I am headed to Bear Trap Ranch, outside of Colorado Springs for for a week of rest and renewal, a week in the mountains, and a week of rejuvenation for my soul and spirit. Since I’ll be out of the normal routine, and halfway across the continent, things will be a bit different. I have scheduled a series of scenic photos I have taken over the years in Colorado, primarily of the aspens as they turn gold. I hope you enjoy them.

Normal activity (whatever that looks like) will resume next week. Please keep me in your prayers for the week, as I seek to listen closely to God and refresh my spirit. Pray that I return renewed and ready to tackle the challenges of ministry for the coming months.

Mountains Shrouded in Clouds

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How To Maintaining Your Health By Eating Better

Continuing My Journey To A Better Life For Myself And My Family

I have shared several times in the past about my health struggles, which have included sleep apnea and skin cancer, among others. The struggle to maintain my health, and to improve it, has been an intense one in my life for the past year. Almost one year ago, I overheard my wife tell a friend that she expected to be widow in the near future. My health was that bad. Something needed to change.

Eating Better

Recently, I shared a few posts about maintaining this temple we live in, our bodies, over at Deliberate Men. Since some of the changes I have made have been pretty significant, I feel it might be of some benefit to repeat this here.

I think one of the best things we can do as men, both for ourselves and for our families, is to stay healthy and care for the body that God has given us. I believe that when it is my time to go, God will take me, and there is little I can do to prevent that. But at the same time, until he chooses to do so, I have to be as effective as I can be here on earth. That means that I need to care for this body so that I can be as effective as possible. Being sickly or in poor shape or poor health won’t allow me to be or do all that he wants of me.

I have focused on two areas in my life to be a better man, when it comes to the physical side of my life. One is maintaining my fitness, exercising and keeping my body fit. The other area is what I put into my body, the stuff I eat. That’s my focus in this post.

I am not an expert in this area. All I know is what I have experienced, and since these actions have helped me, I wanted to share them. Maybe they will help you as well. I have made a few significant changes to my diet, and they have resulted in some incredible changes in my life and body.

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Coffee Break – 09.25.2017

Your Monday Dose Of Inspiration

On this day in history: In 1882, the first major league double header was played. It was between the Worcester and Providence teams. In 1890, the Sequoia National Park was established as a U.S. National Park in Central California. And in 1970, The Partridge Family premiered on ABC television.

Coffee Break

An Easy Guide To Making Cold Brew Coffee – If you have never tried cold brew coffee, you are missing out. Cold brew is some of the smoothest, lowest acidity, coffee you will ever find. Here is an easy guide to making your own, and you can purchase a cold brew maker on Amazon.

Who Really Invented Monopoly? – This board game is probably my all time favorite of the whole industry, except for the fact that it takes so long to play, and my kids have lost most of the pieces. But it is an interesting article. You might also check out this article about the Free Parking space.

Amazing Animals – This is an excellent collection of animal photography.

Two Dumb Goats – This may be the most pointless thing you see on the Internet today. You’re welcome.

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Sometimes The Unexpected Occurs

When Things Don’t Go Like You Plan

I love having a plan, and everything going according to that plan. But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the unexpected occurs.

Sometimes The Unexpected Occurs

Like this week, for example. I had a lot of things planned over the past few days that I wanted to get done. We had a special speaker in for the weekend at our church. And I wanted to get a few articles written in advance for this site while I am on a retreat the first week of October.

But apparently, that was not to be.

Last Thursday evening, I went home feeling exhausted. I didn’t think anything of it, because it had been a long day. But overnight, I started running a fever. By midday Friday, I was miserable. And I ran a fever off and on for the next several days. After almost a week, and a trip to the doctor, I started to feel better.

As I have reflected on this over the past couple of days, I came to realize that, no matter what my plans may be, sometimes things happen that change my plans. I can respond in one of two ways. Either I can be frustrated and angry that things aren’t going my way, or I can shift my mindset to this new thing, and see what comes of it.

While my tendency is to be frustrated when things don’t go according to plan, and to stress out over the unexpected, I have chosen the alternative way of seeing this past week. I’m watching to see what God may be teaching me through this. He could be saying slow down. He could be saying that I need to trust him and not my own efforts. He could be showing me that things will go on regardless of whether or not I accomplish my plans. There are a lot of things that I have seen through this that I may have missed had I not been forced to stop and rest.

And at the end of the day, there’s always tomorrow, and the day after, and next week, unless Jesus returns first, in which case it won’t really matter at all. I’ll shift my plans from last week to this week, and to next week if need be. Because I would rather slow down and hear these kinds of things than stay busy and miss hearing the voice of God in my life.

Sometimes it takes a sickness to accomplish that.

Question: Do you take time to rest and listen for God’s voice? Or does he have to get your attention in more drastic ways? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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That Time Jesus Was Tempted By Satan

How Jesus Used Scripture To Resist Temptation

Matthew is the first of the four Gospels in the New Testament, and is one of the more detailed accounts of the life of Jesus. And even though the temptations he faced in the wilderness are recorded in both Mark 1 and Luke 4, Matthew gives us perhaps the most information.

How Jesus Used Scripture When Tempted

One of the most striking things about Matthew’s account of this event is the fact that he states that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Many people don’t read this carefully enough, and get caught up in the fact that God doesn’t tempt, so why would he cause Jesus to be tempted in this scenario?

First of all, the statement that God does not tempt us is true, and is found throughout the pages of Scripture, with James 1:12-13 being one of the most clear statements:

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

But Jesus wasn’t led out to be tempted by God. He was led out into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy, so that he could display the glory of God, and confirm that his calling and strength come from God, even in the face of the strongest of opposition. The temptations came from the Adversary, and from him alone, but God permitted them in order to show us that Jesus came to be the sacrifice for us all.

The crazy thing about this is that even though God will not tempt us, he can still use the temptations we face and turn them into a blessing for us, tempering it to our strength, and making us stronger through the victory over it.