January / February  2010 Hiking the Trail of Truth's Book of the Month...Hiking Life's Difficult Trails. Please click on the book to preview and/or order this life-changing edition. Hiking is indeed great thearpy. Go for it! * Previous Newsletters    (Archives)  Website Home Page  (Trailheads) Mark's Trail Phone 909-549-0068 Contact  Hiking the Trail of Truth,   hikemark@hotmail.com Page 2 From the Editor Hello, and Welcome to the January/February 2010 HTTOT Newsletter!  We here at Hiking the Trail of Truth sincerely hope this new year that you will allow the loving Spirit of God to be active within your heart, and that you are perhaps able to get out for a hike and consider many of the wonders He has made. We are uniquely drawn to these wonders because we were formed from the very dust of the earth, and, because of that relationship, we have the ability to develop the understanding that will allow us to discover our unique balance with nature. Come along with us on a most profound adventure in learning... WEBSITE NEWS: Knowing God is first seeing Him through the things He has made (Romans 1:20).  Hiking the Trail of Truth is here to help you along in your journey of discovery and sharing. If you have been or are presently unable to get out this season for a physical hike, just visit our website's feature trail for this month; The High Sierra Trail. Your mental trek there can take you where you may be unable to journey physically. The eye-opening education, inspiration and lasting encouragement which you can find along the High Sierra Trail will be well worth your time... Just click on the High SierraTrail link in this newsletter, or click on the marker at the website's Hiking Maps and Trailheads page. — We sincerely hope that you will hike all of our devotional and educational trails at the website this year. Again, we are here to help you in any way we can and, as always, look forward to hearing from you. Hiking the Trail of Truth is currently one of the most truthfully informative Christian sites on the web. Please, be our guest; explore this truth for yourself and discover! The most important way to begin your day is with a short reading from the Bible. Today is indeed a good time to begin that resolve. For this purpose, the Mountain and Valley Trail was built. There you will find daily Bible readings for the entire year, with accompanying photos, created especially for you. To locate this picture/Scripture calendar, simply click on the Mountain and Valley Trail marker at Hiking Maps and Trailheads. You will find a compass there that will lead you to the calendar of months, and you can then choose a month to begin your day-by-day readings. Your daily journey through life is sure to begin in the right direction!  After all, we live only one day at a time, right?— Why don't you then take the opportunity now and begin a one-year hike along the Mountain and Valley Trail. You will not be disappointed, in fact, your journey will be full of enlightening, life-changing insights! Don't forget that HTTOT offers FREE COUNSELING to anyone who wants it (Lord knows we all need it). Your varied questions are also important, and are given the utmost consideration in answering them. For you to be aware of the truth, in a world where falsehood abounds, is very important to us. Your spiritual struggles are of our utmost concern—we can help!  We serve a loving and compassionate Creator. So just phone or e-mail any time. Contact information is listed at the bottom of the cover page of this Newsletter, or you can visit Questions and Answers Trail Camp at the website, where a ''submit a question" link is provided, or you can visit the On-Line Church to submit your inquiries or learn there how to understand the Bible correctly. Sincerely, the HTTOT staff.   January/February's Letter From the Editor : "MEN AS TREES" I see men as trees, walking...  (Mark 8:24) This High Sierra Trail has many trees. Trees have a special relationship to us and fortunately they are available for us to view in most parts of the country. There are over 300 references to trees and wood in the Bible. My most favorite of these references is Psalm 1;  Blessed is the man (or woman) who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of living water, which yields its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. Think for a moment how a tree, well rooted in the ground, draws up nourishment, especially those trees near water. These particular trees display great strength and beauty. As you hike through the mountain forests and around the high lakes you will find trees of all different sizes, shapes and physical conditions; from the rugged oaks along the lower elevations, to the tall and majestic pines at tree line, and on up to the contorted, twisting, awe-inspiring bristle cones near the mountains' summit... Of all the things in nature, which I am personally familiar with, I believe that trees relate to us the most (overall) about ourselves. Trees can indeed teach us many things. Let us consider first the roots of a tree. Roots are the very foundation. They can be deeply protected in good, nurturing soil, or can be exposed above ground; vulnerable to weather and destructive birds, insects or animals. The roots of a tree will usually determine its condition throughout its lifetime. Some trees are crooked and twisted. The storms of life have shaped and molded their destiny. This crooked or twisted condition can result in the tree even if it is planted in the best of soil. They may have some type of internal disease or birth deformity. Sometimes they are beyond recovery, hopelessly bound to remain in a deformed state. Some of these deformed trees may have many healthy lower branches, yet toward the top original deformities, age or exposure to high winds may have crippled their growth and they no longer produce as they once did in their youth. Other deformed trees can be just the opposite. Their lower branches are crooked or twisted or broken off early in life, yet their loftier branches have experienced much new growth and continue to climb upward, even in their old age, having stood firm against the wind, sometimes providing quite an exquisite display of leaves and blooms. All trees, no matter whether rooted in good or bad soil, no matter whether nourished well or poorly, have their scars, their broken branches, their knots and other surface deformities, yet, many are full of blooms and so appear, on the surface, to be without spot or blemish. Again, some trees, not deformed at origin, can have a deteriorating condition within.— Bottom line; it's not always easy to get the "full story" of a tree by looking at its outward condition alone. Any strong wind or raging storm can cause these "ailing" trees to break and fall to the ground. In addition, trees also have their seasons. In the summers they can be lush and radiant, but in the fall they lose those leaves with all their radiance, and by winter they are totally dormant. With the coming of spring they usually wake up to bud and flower once again, life amazingly renewed within them. We too, like the trees, have scars, broken branches, deformities and seasons. We have our times of growth and lushness, our times to shed and lose what we've gained, our times of failure, dormancy and unproductivity. We can also have those grand times of refreshing, those times of rebounding to life once again. — The central point of this lesson which the trees endeavor to teach us is that we need to learn to recognize who and what we are, what we are capable of or incapable of—to know our seasons, to understand our necessities and nonessentials for growth. We need to know about the subtle "rottenness" that can develop on the inside and produce within us hearts of stone. We may also have a physical deformity that it seems we can do nothing about. Most importantly, since we do not know the future nor the constructive or destructive power of the approaching storms, and since we obviously cannot care for ourselves on our own, we must, like the trees, depend entirely on God to nurture and sustain us through our various seasons... The trees depend on many outside natural influences to sustain them. A scientific research of the things in nature that help to sustain trees will utterly amaze you!  Plants and animals are involved. Birds are involved. Insects are involved. The sun, wind and rain are involved.— All of these things which influence trees are God ordained and directed. They just don't happen by chance. In the very same way, God uses both natural and providential circumstances to sustain us and to discipline us.— It is wise here to note, remember and consider that a tree does not violate the natural order of things, but we can and do. So, as we're hiking among the various trees, let us consider them as ourselves, as the people we know, or, as those whom we do not know. We need to study the conditions of the various trees and reflect on those relative conditions within ourselves, as well as the conditions of those folks we come in contact with, that we might learn sympathy, compassion, and our need to get involved in understanding and/or helping others. We need, in this process, to understand within ourselves our need to be aware of our own brokenness, our deformities, our seasons, that we might learn to recognize our limitations... If it is your Spring, share it with others. Do good to all of those around you. Just a mere kind word can do wonders. If it is your Summer, give all the more of your radiant energy to others and help them to grow. Through this you will nourish yourself as well as those to whom you are giving nourishment. Action along with your words or even by itself can do miracles. If it is your Fall, accept this time of adversity. Be patient with yourself, with life and with others until the hard times have passed. Spring will come again. If it is the middle of your Winter, do not dismay. There are many times due to varying circumstances, whether of our own creation or beyond our control, that we are unproductive; times when we can do nothing but pray in earnest and allow God alone to bring us through that particular Winter season. Accept that time as part of life's cycles, as part of Gods' individual plan for you. Endure. Some Winter seasons may be quite extensive. Have faith in the coming of your Spring. Stand wise like the trees and don't violate the natural order of things. ¤ Thanks for taking the time to notice the trees with me here along the High Sierra Trail, to share their conditions, their seasons, and to gain profound insight into your own. Once again it is indeed good to consider the things God has made and their unique relationships to us. They can be useful tools in the hands of those who are both humble and wise in spirit... (Job 12:7-10) To all who mourn, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for His own glory... I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. (Isaiah 61:3, Ecclesiastes 2:5) Thanks for hiking along with me today—see you next month for another letter from the editor! Sincerely, Mark S Taylor Questions? Please contact me. HIKING THE TRAIL OF TRUTH Mark S. Taylor Trail Phone:  (909) 549-0068 Home] [Hiking Maps & Trailheads] [Discovery Trail] [Bible Map] [Trail of Time] [New Birth Trail] [Mountain & Valley Trail] [Desert Trail] [Lake Trail] [High Sierra Trail] [Wilderness Trail] [HTTOT the book] [False Trail] [Monthly Newsletter] [Newsletter Archives] [Questions & Answers] [On-Line Church] HIKING THE TRAIL OF TRUTH Mark S. Taylor (909) 549-0068