The cross is the symbol of Christianity. People wear crosses as jewelry all over the world. The main reason is that Jesus died on a cross. It was an instrument of torture and death, and it’s purpose was to drain a person of all human dignity as they slowly died with hours even days of incalculable pain before a mob of watching spectators. So the cross symbolizes death, but it is also a symbol of new life, eternal life with God, because while Jesus hung on the cross God the Father took our sins and put them on Jesus and His agony and death paid the penalty of our sin. We get the free gift of eternal life if we accept this gift from Him because we believe that we need it. The cross is also the symbol of death and life as we live our life as a Christian. People,today do and say things to us and say things to others about us that wound, hurt, embarrass, violate our rights, and break our hearts. Most choose to get angry, retaliate, get bitter, and defend themselves, and it seems right, but is equivalent of Jesus calling 10,000 angels and wiping out the mob that was mocking Him as He hung on the cross or at least jumping off of the cross and telling people to go to hell, both which He had the power to do. Instead he stayed and died and the Father raised Him from the dead, exalted His name above every name, and gave us eternal life. God the Father gave His Son, that is, He is the one who put Him on the cross and Jesus submitted to it. God purposely puts us in situations where we are hurt, dishonored, and taken advantage of, and if we trust Him and humble ourselves He will exalt us and use us to give life to others, but it is our choice. Memory verses for the week, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” John 12:24 “Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.” Luke 9:23-24

I usually do my taxes on April 13th or 14th and occasionally the 15th. Today I realized that I was going to be pedaling my bike somewhere in West Florida on those dates so I was going to need to get them done before we leave on our biking trip across the USA. I started this evening. I have never gotten into doing them on line, I like doing them on paper with the good old 1040 forms. They don’t mail them to me any more so I decided to find a spot online and download and print them off. It took me about an hour to figure out where to go on line To find ones that I could print off. I got about half way done filling in all the numbers, and I realized that I had printed a form for 2014. I couldn’t figure out why they had those available still, but I went back and found the right year and started again. By this time I was getting a bit cranky so I decided to finish tomorrow and write this blog. Taxes have been part of man’s life since there has been government and I am pretty sure have caused people to get cranky from the very beginning. The cost of government seems to be going up and I found myself mentally fussing about it. Oh well, ours is still way better than most of the countries in Africa. Someday Jesus will be the King of the whole world and then there won’t be any taxes. Cool.

The topic of Spiritual gifts is one that is fun to think about and teach on. It is an ability that is supernatural and infinite in it’s potential to edify and bless people and cause them to grow. There isn’t much that brings greater fulfillment than functioning in the power of our spiritual gift. There is a great sense of contentment and a feeling that we are right where we were created to be. Patty’s gift is serving and she can be all tired out from a busy day and then she hears about someone who has some kind of need and as she goes about doing something about it she gets totally renewed in her strength, she becomes super woman! I can be so muscle fatigued and stiff from my Parkinson’s disease that I can hardly walk, and then stand up to teach the Bible and it will all go away. It is quite amazing to experience. The Bible teaches that our spiritual gift is like a part of our physical body, a hand, or foot, or ear, or eye. Each body part has a unique function and edifies the rest of the body. That illustration also demonstrates what is required for our gift to function. My physical hand won’t do anything unless it is connected to my arm, to my body. The church is the “Body of Christ” and if we are not committed to and involved with our church our gift will not function. Very few Christians today have any idea what their spiritual gift is, and the reason is because most Christians today have a very low view of the church in general and a very low level of commitment to their own church family. That is like cutting my hand off at the wrist and laying in on the key board of a piano and expecting it to play. All it will do is bleed and look gross.

As I pursue character growth in my life I have identified 24 character traits I want in my life. Two really important ones are self-control and patience. As I pursue these one of my commitment statements is that I won’t get angry because of trials, difficulties, unexpected set backs, or at people who do things to violate my rights, not even a little bit irritated. I have been doing pretty good at keeping that commitment for awhile, in fact I had a 108 day streak going. Today I had a long list on my “to do list” of things I wanted to get done, many of them in preparation for our bicycle trip to the East coast in 10 days. One of them was to paint water proofing stuff on the bottom of the tent Patty and I are going to sleep in. I bought two little bottles of it on line advertised as the best stuff possible for keeping tents leak proof, and it must have been because it was very expensive. I calculated that the two bottles would be just right to do the job well on our tent. I had the tent set up on the drive way upside down so I could paint the bottom well. A big blast of wind blew the tent and as I tried to keep it from blowing down the driveway I dropped the bottle of waterproofing stuff and it spilled out all over the ground. I got instantly angry and said a dairy farm word that I haven’t said for a long time. I was so thankful that none of my grandkids were helping me. Oh well, back to day one on the streak. Progress on self-control and patience sure is slow going.

After church today I took Patty out for a nice dinner date at our favorite restaurant, “The Roadhouse Grill”. She had “Baby back ribs” and “shrimp”, and I had “Baby back ribs” and “Prime rib”. Whoooeeee was that good. Nice dinner and very nice conversation with my wife of 47 years. The guy taking care of us came by with the bill, and said he would take care of it whenever we were ready. I could see that they had a line-up of people waiting for a seat on this Valentine afternoon, and so he was probably trying to hurry me along a little bit. I reached for my wallet and got this sick feeling in my stomach as I felt nothing and realized that I had changed pants after church and had failed to get my wallet out. Patty had no money expecting that I was paying for dinner. We discussed our options, and decided that washing dishes was probably not an option. We decided that I would tell them our dilemma, I would sit in the lobby eating peanuts playing “Angry Birds” on my phone, and Patty would drive back home and get my wallet and come back and we would pay the bill. I thought of calling someone at home but no one was home, and then I remembered that Dick and Lou Ellen Pearson lived somewhere in this area so I called them. Lou Ellen laughed hysterically at my dilemma, and when she caught her breath she said they would be glad to help us out, and Dick walked over and gave me enough cash to take care of the bill a few minutes later. It is nice to have friends in just the right places when you need them.

I went to the Portland Sportman’s Show today with two good friends. It was an incredibly fun day. The Show seemed bigger this year and all of the buildings at the Expo Center were filled with hunting and fishing guides with great videos of successful hunts and fishing trips. There were also booths selling fishing equipment of every sort, all of the latest and best in camping stuff along with camp trailers and campers, and lots of boats,quads, and trucks. I get a big plastic bag right off the bat and collect dozens of brochures on all of the various guided hunting trips promising Boone and Crocket record book deer and elk, along with the guided fishing trips. The one I got the most excited about was the trip out of Baha, California for yellow fin tuna that get as big as 400 lbs, now that would be fun. When I get home I read through each one the cool brochures once more, and then throw them away knowing that they all are out of our price range, but it was fun to dream and imagine a bit. I did buy a few things that I couldn’t resist, but just a few. The phrase I used at the start “incredibly fun day” is interesting. What does “fun” mean? What made it fun? Was it the all time funest day? If it wasn’t what was? I am always careful to acknowledge to the Lord that besides Him I need nothing in order to be full of joy. But it seems like when that is really true that the Lord is free then to bring days into our life where everything is perfect and good and is incredibly fun because He knows that we will not get addicted to that kind of day and worship it as it were because of the good time we had. God will have no other gods before Him and if we look to fun days with stuff and perfect circumstances to meet our joy need God will remove them out of our life. As I lay in bed tonight thinking about the day, I say “thank You Lord, for the gift you gave me today, it was awesome and you are wonderful, I love You”.

The death of Jesus is what gives us life forever. He died and then rose from the dead. The most basic message to us is to die to self and then Jesus will give us new life. Die to self is the most often given and most emphatically given principle by Jesus to His disciples for character growth and fruit bearing.
Luke 9:23-24 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
Luke 17:33 Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
Our biggest problem is our ego. Probably almost every relational conflict we have is because of our ego. It is our biggest problem in our relationship with God. Because of our ego God doesn’t use us. Because of our ego God doesn’t bless us. Because of our ego God doesn’t know us. Those with ego problems are easily offended, they seek recognition, they gossip and slander, they are quick to defend themselves, they are not easily taught or corrected, they feel sorry for themselves, they are people pleasers, they argue, and they often feel they are being taken advantage of, they are fussers and whiners. We all are born with major ego problems, but if we are going to be blessed and used by God we must figure out how to die to self. If we die God gives us new life, if we die like a grain we bear much fruit. It is counter intuitive to lay down and let people walk on us, but if we do God exults us, and He does great things through us. But you say people will take advantage of me. That is true only if your God is dead. My Savior is very much alive and very involved in my life, and He will protect me and He will exalt me.

I have been gone for the last 5 days to Elko, Nevada teaching at Calvary Baptist on how to raise Champions for Jesus. I enjoy traveling and teaching at other places and meeting new people, and I am thankful that God has opened up doors for me to do this. I always pray hard that I make a difference in someone’s life, and that changes are made that make a difference for eternity. But it is so good to be home again. Was so nice to walk into the waiting area of the airport and see Patty waiting for me, to get home and see some of my kids and Russel my dog. I sleep so good in my own bed. I like my house a lot, and I plan on living in it until I die or Jesus comes. Someday though I am getting a new house, one that Jesus builds just for me. He said in John 14, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places… I go to prepare a place for You..I will come again and get you that where I am you may be also.” I am ending tonight as I always do, setting my mind on eternity, my new body, my new house, and my Savior, Jesus.

Most of the experts picked the Panther’s to win, and my guess was they would, but I was rooting for the old man. I am kind of partial to old men. Football is fairly unpredictable in the final outcome because of so many little things that can happen like fumbles, missed field goals, interceptions, bad punts, etc and the best team can do them. Football is a lot like life. You fight and struggle, work together with your team, try to do everything right, and things go wrong, often. With football it is over until next year, but with life every day is a new game. The person who perseveres and endures to the end wins the crown of life that Jesus gives. I will go to bed tonight and let out a big sigh very glad for the chance to rest, and anticipate another unpredictable day coming up but confident because of God’s protection, guidance, strength, wisdom, and the team I am part of, I will win. A major element in my life is the team I play on. My wife, Patty, my family, my friends and my church family. The Bible makes it clear that by ourselves we will lose. We were not created by God capable of winning without being on a good team. The church is the “Body of Christ”, the “Bride of Christ”, the “Family of God”. Every person ought to be a functioning part of a church family if they want to win. That is the way God made it, and He is in charge.

I made a mistake and scheduled a speaking appointment in Nevada over Super Bowl Sunday! How could I be so dumb!! But it is working out ok, I am going to someone’s house tomorrow here where I am speaking, a dentist, with a big house and a really big screen TV and he is having a big party with lots of snacks. Everyone here is rooting for Denver and I am to. I want to see the old man, Payton Manning go out a winner. The Super Bowl for me is the moment that I appear before Jesus at the end of my life and I hear Him say to me, “Super, you did super living and serving Me with your life, come on in to My house now as a winner!” That is what I want and what I focus on everyday of my life. I will finish well and receive from Him the crown of life, the greatest trophy ever.