I was reading some writings by Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, and he wrote,” We need to stop monkeying around.” My Dad used to say that to us boys as we grew up on the farm. It is interesting that a phrase as weird as “monkeying around” could persevere in use for over 2,000 years. I read one chapter of the book of Proverbs by Solomon every day, and it was written over 1000 years before Marcus Aurelius. Almost every chapter has words and phrases still used today as we communicate. Communication is a fascinating topic to think about. The ability to communicate varies tremendously from person to person.

My ministry, my job, my responsibility is to communicate the truth about God and His message to us in a way that is clear and understandable. Almost everything I teach or speak aloud, I write down. Writing is the most effective way to make what I want to say clear. I don’t read what I wrote when I speak, but I do have a condensed set of notes to help keep me on track. In everyday conversations, I hear a lot of people who are poor communicators; it is very hard to understand what they are trying to say. I also hear people who are exceptionally good at communicating. I try to learn from both, and as I listen to them, I try to identify practices and methods that help or hurt their communication. Probably the number one problem in clear communication is talking too much. I am sure the reason people talk too much is that they are trying to explain what they mean more clearly, but it has the opposite effect. There is a built-in result of being concise: we become clearer. 

When I was 22, I borrowed $40,000 and started my own small dairy. My goal was to grow it and to become a very successful dairy farmer. My cows picked up a disease when they were being trucked to my dairy, and in less than one year, half of them died, and I had to sell the remaining ones. I was left with a huge debt, which seemed impossible to pay off. I found a well-paying job, worked very hard, and, in two years, I was debt-free. Over the years, most of the hard circumstances that came into my life were like that, very hard, but ones I could conquer and solve with hard work, wisdom, godly counsel, and God’s strength. I enjoyed the challenge of being an overcomer and recognized the character growth I experienced as I faced and solved problems that God brought into my life. As I have gotten older, I have faced more and more difficult circumstances and trials that I can’t solve or fix. My brother-in-law has pancreatic cancer, my son-in-law has colon cancer, my sister has a severe depression and anxiety disorder, another son-in-law is in a wheelchair, Patty came home from the hospital today with some kind of infection in her hip that is causing her great pain that has the doctors baffled, many of my really good friends have cancer, many others have already died, and the circumstances in the world around me are getting crazier by the day. I can pray, and I do, but I am always careful to end my prayer with, “not my will but yours be done.” Everybody is going to die sooner or later, and there is nothing I can do about that. Now the challenge of my life is to trust God, to rejoice always, to grumble and complain about nothing, to be anxious about nothing, and to be a very attractive advertisement for Jesus as Savior because of my overflowing joy. The old problems were like climbing a mountain; they were done, conquered, and then we moved on to bigger problems to solve. Now the problems stay, get bigger, and the great challenge in life is not letting what I used to conquer conquer me. Now I live in the midst of giants that I used to kill and drive out of my life. But now they don’t go away. The great daily challenge of my life now is to laugh at the giants, shake my fist in their face, and not let them intimidate me. 

What do people want more than anything else? They want personal freedom, happiness, and the respect of their peers. Most people who responded to the survey said these were desires, but their responses made these hopes seem more like wishful thinking than very probable. They believe that what controls their personal freedom, happiness, and their peers’ respect is beyond their control. The truth, according to the Bible, is that our personal freedom is a result of our choices in life, that our happiness is a result of our personal choices in life, and that the respect we receive from the people in our lives is a result of our choices. It is easier to blame circumstances and others for our misery and failure than to own the responsibility, but that is what we have been doing since Adam. We choose how we think and talk about our circumstances. We can’t usually control circumstances, but we can control our response, and it is that response that determines most of what we really desire in life. Circumstances don’t determine my feelings; my response to my circumstances determines my emotions. 

All over the world, there is fighting. There are wars, boxing, martial arts, wrestling, and life. To live is to fight. God made it that way. I fight to accomplish my goals. I fight against my flesh, the devil, and the world. On our way back from Sierra Leone, we had a layover in Paris, so we added a day and toured Paris and Normandy. The Normandy tour was very moving, as we saw the story of D-Day and the casualties of war. I can’t imagine what it was like to be a soldier storming the enemy on Omaha Beach with all that gunfire happening all around you. But one thing I am sure of is that each of those soldiers was not complacent or apathetic about their role and responsibility. I sometimes get lazy, complacent, and apathetic in my responsibility as a Christian, given the responsibility to build God’s church. I want to be full of fire and passion to conquer the kingdom of darkness and to accomplish as much with my life as is possible before I die. 

There are two kinds of people in this world. The first looks at others who have accomplished significant things in their lives and thinks, “Why them?” Why not me? The other looks at those same people and thinks: If they can do it, why can’t I? He sees the success of others as an inspiration, not as intimidation. Which attitude will propel you onward and upward? Which will drive you to bitterness and despair?

I read a lot, and I like to read biographies of successful people. I especially enjoy reading about successful pastors and leaders. As I read about these people, I try to learn from their story and believe that I can be like them. One of my favorite biographies is “George Mueller of Bristol.” He accomplished an unbelievable amount simply by praying for it. All through the book, I am saying to myself, “I can do that, I can do that, and I will, help me, Lord. 

I picked this up from my mother. Whenever I would talk about someone’s great accomplishment, usually in sports, Mom would say to me, “You can do that if you try hard.” If you hear something often enough, you begin to believe it, and I did. Thank you, Mom. 

Proverbs 3:3-4 Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute

In the sight of God and man.

I think most people would like to have favor with God. Several people in the Bible enjoyed God’s favor. Mary, the mother of Jesus, Moses, Joseph, Daniel, and Joseph, Mary’s husband, to name a few. Proverbs 3:3-4 also mentions favor with people. We all tend to do things that make people like us, but to have favor with people is more about being admired than being liked, though I am sure we would like to be with and around those we admire. 

The main requirement for being highly favored by God and people is our kindness. A major emphasis in the Bible is that we are kind to people who are not easy to be kind to, the kind that very few other people are kind to. 

There is no immediate motivation to be kind to difficult people, but my main motivation is the desire to please God and be favored by Him. 

I just got back from a ten-day trip to Sierra Leone, West Africa. It has been about 7 years since I last went, and I used to go 2 or 3 times a year for 17 years. I stopped because of my health, but I did very well on this trip and plan to go back again in February to teach a seminar to the pastors on church growth, majoring on prayer, teaching leadership, and teaching personal evangelism to those in their churches. God has given me some new big goals in my life, and I am very excited to get after them. I have been having a very fulfilling and rewarding time preaching at Jefferson Evangelical Church over the last couple of years, and now, with this ministry added to my life, I feel like I could live to be 100. It is amazing the power that goals, dreams, and purpose have in our lives, giving us energy and passion, even for old guys like me. There are so many opportunities all around us to get involved in something that has purpose and blesses other people. 

I am in Sierra Leone, West Africa, this week. I came to Sierra Leone for the first time in 2002, right after the civil war was over, which resulted in many thousands of people being killed. I continued to come over several times a year for about 20 years. The country was very open to the gospel because of the poverty and turmoil caused by the war. I haven’t come over for over six years because of health issues. This trip has been very rewarding. We have started 43 churches since 2002, and most of them have a school ministry serving several hundred kids. Our ministry is actively training pastors through a Bible college and a seminary to equip new churches with quality leaders. We just finished building a facility for the Bible College and Seminary to meet in. It is a very nice building with plenty of room to teach many potential pastors. Because I was the pioneer of this ministry, I was honored that the building was named “Duke Hall.” It was a very nice honor, and all who were at the commissioning celebration were very honoring to me. Even though it was a very positive experience in my life, someday I will stand before Jesus at the Judgment seat of Christ, where I will be honored by Him for what I have done with my life for Him. That day will be wonderful if I have really served Christ well. 

I am in Sierra Leone, West Africa, this week. I came to Sierra Leone for the first time in 2002, right after the civil war was over, which resulted in many thousands of people being killed. I continued to come over several times a year for about 20 years. The country was very open to the gospel because of the poverty and turmoil caused by the war. I haven’t come over for over six years because of health issues. This trip has been very rewarding. We have started 43 churches since 2002, and most of them have a school ministry serving several hundred kids. Our ministry is actively training pastors through a Bible college and a seminary to equip new churches with quality leaders. We just finished building a facility for the Bible College and Seminary to meet in. It is a very nice building with plenty of room to teach many potential pastors. Because I was the pioneer of this ministry, I was honored that the building was named “Duke Hall.” It was a very nice honor, and all who were at the commissioning celebration were very honoring to me. Even though it was a very positive experience in my life, someday I will stand before Jesus at the Judgment seat of Christ, where I will be honored by Him for what I have done with my life for Him. That day will be wonderful if I have really served Christ well. 

Energy is an interesting thing to think about and ponder in my own life. There is physical energy, but the energy that seems to affect me most is emotional or inner energy. It might also be called willpower. I have a fairly long list of what I call daily disciplines: Bible reading, Bible memorization, prayer, reading in a good book, journaling, exercising, praying with Patty, and writing some notes to people. I usually do pretty well at getting them all done every day. Lately, many family members and close friends have gotten seriously sick, and some may not live much longer. There are always some, that is life, but of late it seems the number has increased substantially. The result is that I have gotten flat, developed an inner weariness, and really struggled to get my disciplines done. One of the things that has helped is my recent study for this Sunday’s sermon on self-control. Those with self-control are overcomers; they overcome the world and its attractiveness, they overcome their own flesh and the temptations that come from their sin nature, and they overcome the devil and all of his schemes and tricks to get them to turn away from God. Life is up and down, with its trials and tribulations; sometimes there are few, and then there are the seasons of plenty. Being faithful to the disciplines, my goals, and right living is relatively easy during the good times, but it takes endurance and self-control to keep running the race during the hard times. The key thing for me is to choose to rejoice and to pray a lot for God’s strength, peace, and joy despite life. A major object of rejoicing is eternity with Jesus with a glorified body. Every one of my friends and family who is sick loves Jesus and will be with Him if they die. I am looking forward very much to the day I depart this life for glory. My Mom and Dad are there, and an increasing number of family and friends.

I am looking forward to the big reunion with them all when I get there.