Patty had a surprise birthday party this afternoon for her 70th birthday. All of our daughters, daughter in law, and a number of Patty’s friends all got picked up in this huge limousine in the church parking lot and they then went to the Olive Garden for a special birthday dinner. Patty had a great time and felt very honored and loved by the surprise. It is kind of funny that I don’t ever think of Patty as old, she doesn’t act old, and doesn’t look old, but when they said “Patty’s 70th birthday” it sounded so old. I won’t be 70 for 9 more months😀. My inspiration is Caleb in the Old Testament, in Joshua 14:10-11 he says, “Now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.” I am zeroed in on that as my ministry goal, to Pastor until I am 85 years old, which means that I have 15 more years left. That is a long time, and I can serve the Lord and accomplish a lot in that time. A key reason that I believe that I will be around is because of the exercising that I do for my Parkinson’s. I ride my stationary bike for a full hour each a every day, and besides the benefits for Parkinson’s there are many benefits that I experience in my health from the hour a day of peddling hard. If I were declared healed of Parkinson’s I would keep on riding my stationary bike an hour every day so I could continue to experience the blessings of good health.

There are 5 things that I want more of with every fiber of my being, 5 things that I am consumed with getting more and more of, 5 things that I have zero contentment in, 5 things that I plead with the Lord to please give me more of. The first is wisdom, I feel so dumb most of the time, and desperately want to think with great wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. The second is the level of real intimacy with the Lord, really knowing Him, walking with Him, sensing His presence, hearing His voice, I am such a novice in this area, and want so much more. The third is the amount of fruit I have born for the Lord that has made a difference in the lives of people, the number that have been born again as a result of my witnessing, the number that have grown as disciples because of my teaching, I have this insatiable desire for more and more impact and influence on others for good. The fourth is more righteousness, more holiness, more Christ like character, it seems at times that I am going backwards instead of growing in becoming like Jesus. I am so thankful that He is merciful. And the fifth is best expressed with these verses, Philippians 1:9 “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more” 1 Thessalonians 3:12 “and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people”. I want, really want to love people more and more. I want all the qualities of love to be manifest in my life all the time with every person that comes into my life. I want to be free from impatience, grumpiness, criticalness, anger, insensitivity, and haughtiness. Beginning with Patty, then moving to my family, and then to those at JBC, and then to every person that comes into my life. I so often say and do things that hurt and offend people, mostly in ignorance but occasionally on purpose. I want, truly with all my heart want to never to treat any person with less honor than I would treat and speak to Jesus with.

Jesus said that if we would “hunger and thirst for righteousness, we would be satisfied, meaning that we would become more and more righteous. Years ago, when I was in my early 20’s We would sing a little chorus that John Fisher wrote called, “I want to be a more righteous man”. It was a short song, with a catchy melody that I used to sing all day long while I was working. Occasionally I would stop and think about the words and declare to the Lord, “I really do want with all my heart to be a more godly man, please grant me the desire of my heart”!! Obviously the level of righteousness that we can grow to is to be like Jesus so we have a long way to go, and as we grow little bit by little bit it seems like our desire grows as well so that we agonize over each of our failures to live a holy life. I have heard teachers say that we shouldn’t feel that agony over our sins, and we ought to adjust our thinking so that we don’t. I am sure that if I adjusted my thinking so that I became comfortable with my level of unrighteousness I would stop growing in my level of righteousness. I hunger and thirst for more and more righteousness, and I want more of that desire so that I am driven to pursue Christ and to be like Him. Five things I want more of, five things that I declare to the Lord that if He doesn’t give me, please just kill me and take me to heaven, there is no level of satisfaction reached, in fact as more is achieved even more is wanted. The first is wisdom, to be able to think right, think clear and true, to think like Jesus. The second desire is to know Jesus more intimately, to truly dine with Him, to hear His voice, and to walk with Him. The third desire is to bear fruit, to do something with my life that matters for all eternity, to make a difference in people’s eternal destiny, to be able to say at the end of my life as Jesus did, “I glorified You in my life, having accomplished the work You gave me to do”. And the fourth is to be a more righteous man, every day of my life, more, more, more.

I sometimes wish that I could just be content with a church of 50, and not care if there were any new people on Sunday, or if anybody was scheduled to get baptized, or if we reached our attendance goal. I live in a constant state of discontent bordering at times on frustration over the growth of our church. By many people’s standards JBC is doing great, but by mine we could do so much better. WantIng a bigger church is silly, it means more problems, more conflicts, more marriage problems, more people who can’t pay their water bill, and on and on and on….. My, oh my, how I wish I could be content with a comfortable little church of 50 people. I guess it is my understanding of what it means to be “spiritually lost”, and what the consequences are for ever and ever that drives me. There are so many needy people all around me, all around our church, people who need an invitation to attend a worship service, who need a friend, who need a savior. There are 5 things that I want more and more of, that I constantly am praying and asking God to please bless me with. The first is more wisdom, the second is more intimacy with Jesus, to know Him for real, more and more, and the third is more fruit, more people who’s lives have changed, more people headed for an eternity with God instead of an eternity in darkness, aloneness, and agony. My prayer every morning and every night is “please Lord, bless me so that I can bear more fruit in the next 10 years of my ministry than I did in the previous 40.

There are 5 things I want more and more and more of, never being content with what I already have. The first is wisdom, I need so much more wisdom than I presently have, I desperately want more. The second is my relationship with Jesus, it is so shallow and superficial, so much of what I think is a relationship with my Lord is probably just tradition and religious activity. Paul had the discontent that I am talking about and he expresses it in Philippians 3:8. “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,”. God waits to be wanted, really wanted, and when we seek Him diligently He reveals Himself to us. Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”. Also in Psalms 119:2. “How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart.” My real proximity to Jesus is hard to measure for sure, but nothing messes up the accuracy of self assessment in our walk with Christ as much as projecting an image to others that we are intimate with Jesus when in fact we are not. I want, really want a growing relationship with Jesus.

There are things we ought to be content with. The Apostle Paul says “I have learned the secret of contentment”, and he was talking about money and possessions. But there are things I ought not to be content with, I ought to want more, much more, more and more, tons more, consumed with the insatiable desire for more, driven by the desire for more. There are five things that I want more of, that I plead to God for, that I work very hard for more of, and that I agonize over. The first is wisdom, I want so much more wisdom than I presently have. Wisdom is knowing what to say and do in every situation God sovereignly places me in,

Understanding will watch over you,Wisdom is being able to solve the problems of life successfully both for myself and for others. Wisdom is being able to think like God.

God promises to give wisdom to those who want it, really want it, and seek it like a billion dollars is at stake.

Proverbs 2:2-11 Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you,

Those who are consumed with more and more wisdom read a lot, they listen to good teachers, they seek counsel from many different sources, they write what they learn so as not to forget, and they never resist being corrected. God asked King Solomon what he wanted more than anything else, he responded with “wisdom”, and God was pleased with this desire and granted it to Him. In 2018 I am committed to seeking wisdom like gold, and asking God for more and more wisdom every single day.

New beginnings are always fun because we can leave and forget the past, and move on to bigger, and better, and more successful. We were created by God for growth, in fact unlimited growth, but it is not automatic which is obvious by looking around at many people around us. But we have everything we need to grow more and more each and every year of our life, and in fact we can accelerate our growth as we get older and wiser if we truly want to and make the effort and apply the principles. We can grow in every area of our character, we can grow in our skills, we can grow in our capacity and ability to accomplish significant things with our life, we can grow in our wisdom, we can grow in our ability to love people, there really is no limit to the areas we can grow in and the things we can accomplish. There are several requirements though for this fun and exciting ride of growing and accomplishing more every year we live. The first is effort, hard work, diligence, grit, and paying the price. A great motivator in this area of our life is to look up all the verses in the book of Proverbs on diligence and hard work, put them all in one place and then read them at least weekly. Our flesh is lazy so we need to constantly discipline ourselves to do more and more. A second requirement is passion, desire, want to, fire, discontentment, and dreams. A third major requirement in my opinion are clear written goals that are an expression of the desire of our hearts. The best way to make requirement number two happen is to write Nobel goals, read them several times each week and pray about them asking God for the drive and energy to accomplish them, and pretty soon you will be a hot on fire person.

It is the last day of 2017 with just a couple of hours left. So thinking back on the year it was a pretty good one. But what makes a good year? No major crisis’ or trials? Adequate income and no major unexpected bills? Good health in most of our family relatively speaking? Lots of fish caught? My number one criteria for declaring the year good was what I was able to do with my life that mattered, that made a difference, that I am pretty sure God would declare fruit that would glorify Him, and impacted someone else’s life for all eternity. I am anticipating that one of these years there will be a marked downturn in what I am able to accomplish because of age, health, or my Parkinson’s, but it wasn’t this year. There were lots of opportunities and divine appointments provided by God to keep me busy in ministry most of the time. My energy level was good, and my passion and drive were about as strong as ever. So I declare 2017 a very good year, and pray and ask God to give me another one this coming year. I am anticipating that 2018 is going to be the best year ever.