If you follow me on Twitter, you've already seen my re-tweet (RT) of today's Summit Daily News' scoop on the sale of Copper Mountain by Vancouver-based Intrawest to Utah-based Powdr Corporation.

I'm bummed that I missed out on buying Copper Mountain myself.

Does anybody else remember when Copper Mountain was owned by St. Louis-based Apex Oil Company? (That was back in 1980, the year that the Obsessive Skier first put on a pair of downhill skis.) If a guy like Tony Novelly can own a ski area, why can't the Obsessive Skier?

So I've been doing a little online shopping. Here are some options:

Elk Meadows Ski Resort, Utah - Minimum Bid $1,000,000

Snowy Range Ski Area, Wyoming - Bank Owned & Operated Again This Season.

Big Horn Ski Resort in Wyoming is for sale for $20-35,000,000.

Mount Waterman in Southern California is For Sale for $1,650,000. (But, no snowmaking options.)

Maybe we could form a partnership with the investors who bought Ski Rio (Northern New Mexico) back in 2008. I drive through Costilla, NM a couple of times a year and wonder if things will ever turn around for that town.

The ABC News blog reported earlier this year that the Stowe, Vermont Ski Area was on the market.

Hemlock Valley Resort in British Columbia has been looking for some investors.

And if you can get your hands on a lot of kronor, this Swedish town and ski resort is for sale.

Oops...almost forgot this: Clear Fork Ski Area in Butler, Ohio is on the market too.

Interested parties, please contact the Obsessive Skier as soon as possible, as these prime ski resort investment opportunities are bound to move quickly, especially now that Copper Mountain has changed hands for the umpteenth time in recent years.

When it comes to Ski Areas, it looks like a buyers' market these days.

Did I ever tell you that I used to be a real estate broker?

I came across this today, thanks to Kairos Journal.

A Prayer for the Muslim World—Samuel Zwemer (1867 – 1952)

The great historian of Christian mission, Kenneth Scott Latourette, once said that no man deserved the title “The Apostle to Islam” more than Samuel Zwemer.¹ The 13th of 15 children born to a Dutch Reformed immigrant family in Michigan, Zwemer gave his life to the evangelization of Muslim peoples. For 40 years he worked in Iraq, Bahrain, and Egypt. In his extensive travels throughout Asia, India, Africa, and North America he presented the needs of Muslims to Christians and the gospel of Christ to Muslims.

A plea for persistent prayer for Muslim peoples and lands was a constant theme in his public speaking and writing.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who hast made of one blood all nations and hast promised that many shall come from the East and sit down with Abraham in thy kingdom: We pray for thy prodigal children in Muslim lands who are still afar off, that they may be brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Look upon them in pity, because they are ignorant of thy truth.

Take away pride of intellect and blindness of heart, and reveal to them the surpassing beauty and power of thy Son Jesus Christ. Convince them of their sin in rejecting the atonement of the only Savior. Give moral courage to those who love thee, that they may boldy confess thy name.

Hasten the day of religious freedom in Turkey, Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa. Send forth reapers where the harvest is ripe, and faithful plowmen to break furrows in lands still neglected. May the tribes of Africa and Malaysia not fall prey to Islam but be won for Christ. Bless the ministry of healing in every hospital, and the ministry of love at every church and mission. May all Muslim children in mission schools be led to Christ and accept him as their personal Savior.

Strengthen converts, restore backsliders, and give all those who labor among Muslims the tenderness of Christ, so that bruised reeds may become pillars of his church, and smoking flaxwicks burning and shining lights. Make bare thine arm, O God, and show thy power. All our expectation is from thee.

Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son in the Muslim world, and fulfill through him the prayer of Abraham thy friend, “O, that Ishmael might live before thee.” For Jesus’ sake. Amen.²

Footnotes:

1	In the preface to J. Christy Wilson, Apostle to Islam (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1952).
2	Samuel M. Zwemer, Islam and the Cross: Selections from “The Apostle to Islam,” ed. Roger S. Greenway (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2002), 153-154.

By Russell Moore:

Sesame Street turns forty this week. And, if you’re under forty, I’ll bet just seeing those words in type means a theme song is now running through your head. That’s because the children’s educational television show has worked itself through an entire generation of American popular culture. There’s something here I think the church can learn from the Children’s Television Workshop.

Now, as I soon as I mention Sesame Street, I know some of you will balk about its educational value. You’ll point me to studies suggesting that learning the alphabet from singing puppets actually shortens kids’ attention spans. No argument here. But simply learning facts was never the primary goal of the program.

Read the rest of the article here.

You can get this and more good stuff at http://dontwasteyourlife.com/free-stuff/

Snow days are some of God's best gifts.

But kids are better.

And God himself is even better still.

Next week, the obsessive skier and his family plan to check out the newest ski flick from Warren Miller. Can't wait!

Looking over this exaggerated, humorous "apology form" is a helpful way to think about how poor our attempts at apologies can be at times.

For a much better example of making a good confession, visit www.peacemaker.net.

This photo was taken at 9:05 am today.
You gotta love it! This much snow on October 15th is a huge blessing from God. Maybe Sophie will want to ski on her birthday?

This photo was taken at 5pm today, October 14th, at the top of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

Thank you, Lord, for webcams.

Thank you even more for SNOW!

The Obsessive Skier says "Farewell" and "Auf Weidersehen" to the Herminator, aka Hermann Meier.

The great Austrian ski racer announced his retirement today.

Get the whole story here.

In today's diverse world of Christian theology, one of the most important ongoing debates is over a position called "The New Perspective" on the Apostle Paul's gospel teaching in the New Testament.

This debate concerns the essence of the Christian gospel: Does God satisfy both his infinite justice and loving mercy through His Son Jesus' perfect life and substitutionary sacrificial death? If so, how?

The debate hinges upon our understanding of Paul's teaching on justification in New Testament books like Romans. Christians who follow the historic position of the Protestant Reformation (like me), understand the Bible to teach that a Christian's salvation (particularly his/her justification before God) depends upon God's imputing to them the righteousness of Christ. Thus, justification in Paul's teaching is understood to be primarily legal. In "The New Perspective", justification in Paul's writings is understood to be primarily communal, a result of God's faithfulness to his covenant with the true spiritual Israel.

The debate has played out publicly in the writings of John Piper and N.T. Wright. Lately, I've avoided the debate because I don't have as much time to read theology as I would like. I respect the ministries of both Piper and Wright, but the theologian who has captured my attention on this subject recently is Daniel Wallace.

Wallace writes: "I would view Wright’s synthesis of Romans as a brilliant failure—brilliant because of how coherent it is, but a failure because it sits three feet above the text at all points where it would be inconvenient to wrestle with what the text actually says. In this respect, Wright’s view simply cannot handle the ‘inconvenient truth’ (to borrow a phrase from Al Gore) that Romans is."

You can read the entire article here.

Arapahoe Basin is back to making snow. This photo was taken at 5pm on Thursday, October 1, 2009.

With nighttime temperatures forecast to be below 30 degrees for the next two night, I'm thinking that Saturday will be opening day at Arapahoe Basin.

Whether the snow-meisters at A-Basin can keep that one run open throughout October is another question altogether.

Poor Mr. Red-Tail Hawk.

Mr. Kingbird is being a bully!

Get the whole story here at The Denver Post.

Just like Brett Favre can't walk away from the NFL, it seems Bode Miller can't walk away from the US Ski Team.

Earlier today, The Denver Post reported that Bode Miller will return to the US Ski Team this year.

I'm not getting my hopes up for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The memories of Turin 2006 are still too embarrassing.

Our two girl albino guinea pigs surprised us last night with 4 BABY GUINEA PIGS!

Sophie says, "That's why Merlot was getting so fat!"

We are now looking for adoptive families.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The snowmaking guns are blowing snow at Arapahoe Basin!

The obsessive skier is bubbling up with joy!

View toward the Lenawee Mountain Chairlift at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

Monday, September 21st, 5pm.

The first day of autumn.

Awesome.