Every year for 38 years I have come to the annual North West Conservative Baptist Association meetings. They used to be held in many different places all over the North West but for the last 4 or 5 years they have been at Seaside, Oregon. In the early years of ministry I came because I felt it was my duty to come because of the help the Association gave to us financially when we were a small church. But then I started coming because of the good friends I had made with other pastors who I only saw a couple times each year and the annual meetings being one of them. Tonight I hung out with a group after the regular meetings were over until 11 pm. I have some really good friends who I am very close with in our church, but there is something special about “pastor” friends even if I only see them a couple times a year. Pastors have a unique kind of job with unique pressures and it creates a special kind of bonding between us. Some of my friends that I haven’t seen since last year have gotten Cancer and aren’t doing well at all. One of them has been so ravaged by chemo that he didn’t recognize or remember me. Another was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but is doing much worse than I am. Life is sort of funny how it just keeps marching on and things change. Conversations with my friends that are getting old, sick, retiring are all ended with the same comment. I sure hope Jesus comes back soon. Me to. I can’t wait for my new body!

I am at Seaside this week at the annual meeting for the pastors and staff in our denomination. Every year that we have this event they bring in a really good Bible teacher. This year they have Bruce Ware who is a seminary professor. He was a very good teacher and I learned a lot. As I sat listening to him this evening I recognized how fun it is to learn. There is just something very special for me in listening, and learning new information, and then putting it into practice. We were created by God to learn more an more and grow as a result of our new wisdom. The main barrier to my learning and growing from others is my pride when I think that I have learned it all. I have so much to learn. Please help me Lord to stay humble and teachable !!!

I went on a 18 mile bicyle ride after church today in the wonderful sunshine. I pedaled hard and got a great workout. It is discouraging how quickly I get out of shape if I miss exercising even for a couple days. I have to stay very faithful to a routine of exercise or else I go downhill rapidly.

The same is true of our heart and soul and spirit. If we neglect going to church, reading our Bible, spending time with God in prayer, confessing all known sin to God we will drift away from God very quickly. How foolish for a person to think that they won’t. If a person stops exercising faithfully most would not think that they won’t become out of shape just because they willed it so in their mind. If you don’t exercise faithfully you become weaker quickly, and if you don’t faithfully practice the basic disciplines of the Christian life you will drift away from God. Fear it.

I guess I shouldn’t have gotten so excited about the Blazers winning the other night because they lost tonight. But I guess every NBA team loses some. That is the way life is, good days and bad days, successful days and failure days, happy days and sad days, winner days and loser days. Nobody wins them all, but it is sure nice if you have a winning season. I think part of the key to winning more than you lose in life is how you respond to the loser days. With many a bad day results in a major downer, resulting in a belief that I am a loser incapable of ever winning. That is a dysfunctional way of living, and spirals downward as we continue in that way of responding to bad days. The worst thing about being a dysfunctional person is that you inevitably infect others around you with the same disease, it is very contagious. I work hard to respond to bad choices, poor performance, and major mess up days with self-talk that focuses on improvement and the accomplishment of a champion. “I can do better than that and next time I will, please help me Lord!”

One of the things I bought at the Sportman’s show was a really good flashlight. Not real big, easy to carry while hunting, but very bright. I like bright when you are out in the woods at night. In the gospel of John Jesus declares that He is the light of the world, and that we can choose to walk in His light. When we do walk in the light we can see where we are going, and we don’t trip over things and fall down. Jesus said that those who walk in the light will know the truth and the truth will make them free. Every morning I declare that Jesus is my savior and Lord, that I will follow Him and serve Him, no matter how difficult or hard that might be. That personal presenting of myself to Jesus as His servant doesn’t absolutely guarantee that I will succeed in following Him that day, but it is a great start to that desire. As I walk in the light “I will know the truth”. I will know that God is real, that Jesus is God’s Son and that He died for me. I will know in the core of my being the truth that so many debate.

I watched the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Dalls Maverics tonight. It was a good game and fun to watch. I watched while I ran on my treadmill so I got to do two things at once and the Blazer game made the jogging go faster. The Blazers started as a team shortly after Patty and I got married. I used to drive into Portland with friends from Trout Lake to watch Blazer games when ticket prices were $4 for seats less than 10 rows from the court. I remember how excited I was when the Blazers drafted Sydney Wicks from the John Wooden coached UCLA Bruins that had won another National Championship. The a Blazers won the NBA championship the year after I started pastoring at JBC, now that was a very good year. I enjoy sports and I am a faithful fan of my teams both College and professional. I am a time management nut, and I often wonder about my use of time when watching games on television. My conclusion which may be a major justification of poor use of time, is that I enjoy watching my teams play very much and that enjoyment is a significant source of renewing of emotional energy for me that my job as a pastor tends to drain out of me. Winning is more renewing than losing so I am feeling all filled up after the game tonight, and ready to go tomorrow and for the entire weekend.

I always feel good when I can get my sermon all written out by Wednesday. I finished it today by 2 pm and I felt really good about the finished product. I pray a lot while writing, and I read and think a lot as I study the portion of scripture that I will be teaching about. What I desire more than anything is that the words that I speak this weekend to those who attend will be the very words of God as He speaks through me as He honors my prayers and diligent study of His Word. This week we are in John 8 and in verse 32 Jesus says, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. We live in a day and age where many think truth is what the majority think. My personal firm conviction is that God is very real and powerful, and is the one who determines what is true by His nature. He doesn’t decide what is truth, the very nature of God and His attributes dictates what is truth. God has communicated that truth to us in His Word, the Bible and I am committed to reading it a lot, studying it diligently, and memorizing it so I can teach it accurately each week at JBC. Honor God by going to church this weekend and learning and growing spiritually by the preaching of His Word.

Tuesday evening at 7 pm I usually join a group of guys for an hour of prayer together. We meet in the “cry room” off of the sanctuary at JBC. We sit in a circle and begin with each man sharing a few things he would like prayed about. Each of us has paper and pen and we write down each man’s request. The requests may be very personal or an event in the world such as the Ebola crisis in West Africa. It usually takes nearly 30 minutes for each guy to share and for some questions to be asked to clarify the need. We then pray randomly for the remaining 30 minutes covering all the requests that were made. I don’t lead the prayer time, Ted Pratt does, I am just one of the guys. I enjoy this hour very much. I experience a great sense of God’s presence and His joy during this time that is very renewing for me. I also enjoy the comraderie that happens as we pray for each other and week by week hear of the progress or changes that is happening in each of the areas that we are praying about. There are 168 hours in each of our weeks. Which one of the hours is most important for you? I think sometime we don’t experience what could be the best hour because it takes a little work to get there or make it happen.

My main activity in life now is praying for other people. I come close to praying 20 hours every week for people. I pray for all in my family every day and with 8 kids, 6 son in laws, a daughter in law, 22 grandkids, a mom, and my wife that takes awhile. I also pray for our church staff and their families almost every day. I pray for those who have visited our church almost every day for 3 months. I pray for every person who attends JBC every week, for our daughter church pastors and their families, and for each of the missionaries that we support each week as well. I have an Ipad and I use a photo App that has an unlimited journal capability. I take pictures of people and put them in my prayer journal and I download a bunch of pictures from facebook. I like pictures because then I can have an image of the person in my mind and I can pray with so much more fervency for them. I have almost 2000 friends on Facebook and as I read through it I pray for those that have various trials and struggles and ask God to work in their lives and to bless them. At times it is a bit boring and I struggle to stay focused and on task with out my mind wandering, but most of the time I am very intent on those I am praying for and on God who I am praying to. I rejoice and grieve and feel great sorrow with and for those I am praying for. After praying for awhile I get very wrung out and emotionally exhausted and have to switch to another activity for awhile until I recover. I believe that I am accomplishing more permanent fruit with my life through prayer than anything else I do.

I have had another cold this past week. I got over my last one a couple of weeks ago and I thought I was good for the rest of the year. but no, I get another one and worse than than the last one. Colds are an amazing irritant. Nose runs, coughing fits, sore throat, can’t talk, can’t breath, can’t sleep. I have a commitment to not grumble or complain about anything. How am I doing so far? Colds! I think I will just quit now and go to bed before I write something that I am sorry for tomorrow. Colds!