I have been the Pastor of JBC for 40 years, and we had our first ever Singles Ministry meeting tonight. I had no clue how many would come, and had decided that if at least 6 people came I would persevere and see if we could grow it. Well, we had 25, and it seemed all were interested and some quite excited about the potential for this ministry. The youngest person was about 25 and the oldest around 70 years old. Some had never been married, some married and divorced,and some married and widowed. Probably about two thirds had kids of various ages.  Next week we are going to have a pot luck dinner to start, sing a bit, then I am going to have a short lesson on “How to get along with just about anybody”. In the weeks ahead we will play table games, have picnics outside, go on hikes, go rafting on the Descuttes,  go bowling, and do some other activities, but I don’t think  I talked anybody into skydiving. I had a very good time tonight as we got starred on this new ministry because I really like doing things that meet needs. Fellowship and camaraderie is one of the most basic of needs for people, God created us that way, and I think this is going to be an incredible group of people who are going to experience a great deal of joy together.

If you know someone who is single tell them about our group. We meet on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 pm at Jefferson Baptist Church in the Discipleship Building, upstairs in the middle classroom.

I took Patty out to dinner tonight for Valentine’s, and when I went to pay the bill someone that was in the restaurant while we were there had already paid it, how nice was that! As we sat across from each other eating I thanked the Lord for such a wonderful wife, an amazing marriage, and an exciting history for the last 48 years. How did this happen? I remember! I was on the basketball team of a small Christian College in Portland, Oregon. We usually practiced when everyone else was eating in the cafeteria, and then we would eat as a team. Patty worked in the kitchen as part of her financial aid package so I noticed her most evenings as we ate. One evening while we were eating the coach came in and announced that he had gotten us really good seats at the “Far West Classic” at the Memorial Collosium with some of the best teams in the nation playing. Patty heard us all getting excited about this news and announced that she should get to go since she fed us every night, and washed our dishes. The coach said only boys could go. Patty being a bit of a rebellious spirit back in those days borrowed some cloths from a guy on campus and showed up at the bus, and the coach insisted that she go with us to the game. At first my thoughts were “crazy dame”, but as the evening went along my thoughts began changing, and by the time the bus pulled back into the campus parking lot I was head over heals in love. That evening was December 15th, 1968 and on August 24th 1969 we were married.

It was about 8 years ago that I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, and it has progressed very slowly being more of a nuisance than  a major disability. Nobody knows for sure why but my guess is that I have so many people praying for me, and also the extensive exercise routine that I maintain as my main therapy.  I ride a stationary bike an hour every day and often up to 90 minutes, I also maintain a weight lifting routine. I read and pray while I ride so it really isn’t hard to do time wise. One of the issues with Parkinson’s is fatigue, and it seems to be accerating lately. Here is a quote from Michael J Fox about fatigue.

“One of Parkinson’s more insidious symptoms is fatigue. This is not your garden variety tiredness. This is fatigue on a cellular level. Your body is working overtime to accomplish the simplest of tasks, like pouring orange juice, and the result is a state of being bone-tired most of the day.”

My strategy in dealing with this is (1) control my behavior. I can feel tired without acting tired, that is I don’t have to act grumpy, melancholy, or distracted. I can smile, be pleasant, be polite, and even be attentive in conversations if I choose to. (2) I work hard at controlling my thinking. I don’t ever let myself think “poor me” thoughts, I am an incredibly blessed man in regards to my marriage, my family, my ministry, my friends, my experiences, and my relationship with God. Everybody has problems, and I am choosing to ignore mine and focus on the blessings. (3) And probably the most important thing is I control my speech. The words that come out of our mouth have a huge impact on our own joy level and fatigue level. If I verbalize to others how tired I am it will get significantly worse. I occasionally will say something to Patty, but rarely to anybody else. The main point of this is I can choose. I don’t have to be controlled by my circumstances.

There are so many things being said and written now that are obviously not true. It is like truth is no big deal any more. I personally believe that there is an absolute truth, and that God is the source of that truth. I believe that He gave us that truth in the Bible. Many say they don’t believe in God, but what they are really saying is they won’t submit to God, so they declare Him non-existent. Many say they don’t believe the Bible. So what is left as the source of absolute truth? The Bible has passed the test of time. For thousands of years it has endured though people have tried their best to prove it isn’t Truth, God’s Word. As I read it for an hour every day, and study it, and memorize it there is a resonating with my soul that these Words are supernatural, powerful, and true. I have built my life on the foundation of the principles in the Bible. Principles that tell me how to live, how to love,how to have a good marriage, how to have joy, how to have peace, how to get along with almost anybody, how to be totally free from anger. The Bible gives me simple directions and guidelines in every area of life so that I can be a blessed person. A blessed person is overflowing with joy that no trial can take away, he has a peace that eliminates all anxiety and worry, all, he has a love that allows him to forgive anybody of anything, and help them grow and overcome. And best of all the Bible gives clear directions on how to be forgiven by God of every sin I have ever committed and be adopted by God  into His family, and live forever with Him with incompressible joy. I have a security and hope for the future, forever. The kind of joy I have, the peace, the security is impossible to manufacture by our own will.

We are having about 6 people come to our house for dinner tomorrow after church so we were cleaning house today. One of my jobs was to scoop up dog poop so our guests wouldn’t accidentally step on it tomorrow. I also got nominated by my wife to scrub the front door where same dog had jumped up on the door wanting in the house and covered the door with muddy dog prints. I would have given her away today  if someone had come along who wanted her!

We invite people to our house for dinner who have been to our church a few times to try and get to know them , and to convince them to be a part of our church family. We don’t convince them with words but by the way we act and talk socially with each other.  Our strategy is to get people to hang around us socially, and they will want what we have because of the way we treat them and each other. The basic instructions are, be nice, don’t grumble, don’t complain, don’t gossip, don’t argue, don’t rant, be happy. If we can do that we will be very attractive because very few people experience that but everybody wants it.

We want to be a walking billboard for Jesus.

I went up to the Portland Sportsmans’s Show today with some friends, my son Sam and his two sons, my grandsons Isaac and James. I bought a nice rod and reel for Issac, and had a very good time with them all. The boys favorite part was getting in and setting on all the big Quads, and climbing up in the boats and turning the steering wheels, and going in the campers and trailers. But I think there really favorite part was stopping for breakfast on the way up and dinner on the way home, and a hot dog and pop at the show.

I am a very blessed man, but there isn’t a time that I feel more blessed than when I am having fun with my grandkids. I came home tonight on sort of a high, feeling like a million dollars. Thank You Lord.

I often wonder what eternity is going to be like, especially in regards to family and friends. How will we relate?  Will we live together, close, in the same house? What will we do, will we do it together? I don’t suppose we will argue or get irritated at each other. Several verses in the Bible when describing a person’s death use the phrase, “he was gathered to his people”. That makes it sound like that we will be with family and friends.

I have never been to the North Pole or the South Pole for that matter, and I have never been to heaven so there is so much I don’t know, so I just imagine. There are quite a few Bible verses that give hints, so between those and my wild imagination it has become quite a place with some very cool imagined experiences. The Bible basically says, in our wildest imagination we aren’t even close to how wonderful it will be. I can’t wait.

In  yesterday’s blog I mentioned four things that God will always give to us if we ask for it when we pray.  The four blessings from God are  strength, joy, peace, and wisdom. I also suggested that if we had those four things and we were growing in them we wouldn’t be fussing much about difficult circumstances and events because we could fix them, change them, or overcome them.

A fifth prayer request that God will always answer is referred to in the Bible in Luke 10:2 “And Jesus was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” If Jesus commands us to pray a certain request He certainly is going to answer it. The problem they had 2,000 years ago is the same one we have today, there were people everywhere that did not know God, and there were very few people sharing the truth of the gospel with them. They either were intimidated, busy, didn’t care, indifferent, or didn’t know what to say, and it is that same way today. So Jesus said, pray and the Father will send out laborers into the world to be witnesses. 

During our “Five Days of Prayer” event, this prayer request is number one.  We pray for the missionaries, the pastors of the church’s in Africa that we have started, the people in those churches, the people in our own church here in Jefferson, and the people in the churches in  the United States.

When we “beseech” that is pray fervently, God will send us out. He will do that by putting His heart in us, His love for the people that drove Him to the cross. When He sends us we will have a very strong sense of urgency and a very strong sense that what He wants us to share with others is very important for people to hear. God can do that, but he is waiting for people to pray diligently and fervently because they do care.

That is a much more noble thing to pray for than a comfortable life.

One of the questions that I get asked all the time has to do with the problem of unanswered prayers. I am always trying to persuade people to pray and to pray more. Now that we are in the middle of our “Five Day Prayer Event” at JBC I am in high gear in my persuading role, and I get a lot of passive push back because of a belief that prayer doesn’t really do much.

Most people tend to pray and ask God to change circumstances that we don’t like. God has a plan and a will for our lives, and much of it is “locked in”, so we can pray asking God to change a circumstance or event in our life, but if we are praying against His will it isn’t going to happen. Many add on to the end of their prayers, “Your will be done, not ours” which is a very good thing to pray, but most don’t mean it.

I focus on asking God for things that He will answer 100% of the time, and trust Him for the rest. He will answer the prayer for strength, in fact that is the most often prayed prayer in the Bible. He will always answer the prayer for joy. He can put His joy in us in spite of circumstances. Most people believe their joy comes from circumstances, that is why they ask God to change their circumstances. Psalms 16:11 says that God is the source of joy. He always will give peace to those who pray, freedom from worry and anxiety is a great way to live, and comes to those who pray. God promises to give wisdom to those who ask for it.

So think about that for a moment. God’s strength to bear up under any trial, and to conquer any problem. God’s joy in spite of the worst day. God’s peace that results in stress free living. God’s wisdom so that we know what to do and say in any situation and can fix and solve almost every problem or obstacle that comes into our life. What else do you need.

For our “Five Day Prayer” at JBC, which started yesterday and goes until the end of Friday, we pray 10 hours each day, and  I have been praying about 8 of the 10 hours. These first 2 days I have gotten up at 4:30 am and gotten to bed about midnight or later. So tonight I am tired, and I think I will sleep in 1 hour in the morning. Let me suggest 3 reasons why I do this. The first reason is not very spiritual. I just like to periodically do something hard, and to conquer it. I recently rode my bicycle across the United States for the second time. Why? I just like to do something hard, and succeed. Sometimes when we have a 5 day prayer event I will fast for the 5 days and just drink water and some coffee. I like to eat so that added part makes it really hard, but I like to do hard things, and push myself a little farther than the previous challenge. I am not doing this as a game to win, but as a challenge to make myself stronger so I can win in life, handle trials without caving in.

The second reason is that I deeply believe in the power of prayer, and that sacrifice pleases God and increases the power of my praying. Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross going through great agony, and it was that sacrifice that procured my eternal salvation. King David said, “I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing”. During this 5 days of prayer we are asking God to use us to start churches and schools in West Africa. We are asking Him to provide funds to pay missionaries to take the gospel into countries that don’t know Him.

And the third reason is I want to know God intimately, really know Him, not just know about Him, but have a genuine relationship with him. God waits to be wanted. If we seek Him diligently we will find Him.

Four times a year our church, JBC has what we call “Five Days of Prayer”. From Monday through Friday we have prayer from 5 to 10 am, and also from 5 to 10 pm . We do this in a room that holds about 40 folding chairs set up in 3 concentric circles. We begin praying at quarter after the hour and quit at straight up on the hour, which leaves a 15 minute break every hour for people to come and go, get some coffee, eat a cookie, and chat a bit. During the 45 minutes of praying each hour one person prays out loud, loud enough for everyone in the room to easially hear, and everyone else in the room prays along with them silently in their mind. The person who prays out loud keeps their prayer short usually less than a minute, and when they have finished someone else prays out loud. There is no order for who prays next, people jump in when they feel led to pray when there is a break. If a person feels intimidated about praying out loud there is no pressure, they can just pray silently agreeing in their mind with those who are praying out loud. The time goes by super quick, and is very enjoyable because their is a very strong sense of God’s presence in the room. Each of the four prayer events during the year have a theme for the five days. The one we started yesterday is our foreign Missions prayer time.  We have the names of the missionaries in a booklet placed on each of the chairs so everyone knows who we are praying for. These prayer times are incredibly renewing for me. I get so much joy, peace, and energy from these times that I can hardly stand myself. I truly believe with all my heart that what happens all around us in our community and in the whole world is truly amazing as God works in response to our prayers.