This weekend I preached/taught 7 different times at Jefferson Baptist Church so I am ready for Monday. Monday’s are great days, sometimes I go fishing, sometimes I play golf, sometimes I drive up to see my Mom with Patty, but tomorrow I am going to sleep in until 8:00 am, then when I get up and go into the bathroom I will pray my morning prayer of commitment which takes about 5 minutes, but is probably the most important thing I do each and every day, as I declare Jesus Lord of my life, and ask for His guidance, power and wisdom for the day. Then I am going to repair my riding lawnmower, if it is a burn day, I am going to burn the huge pile of limbs and brush behind my house, I am going to work on my go-kart for a little bit, I am going to see if I can figure out why my hot tub won’t heat and fix it, and I am going to do a little shop clean up and organizing. After that some friends are coming over and we are going to watch Monday Night Football, eat fried chicken, pizza, tacos, chips, and ice cream! Anybody is welcome to come on over, it should be a really good game. After everybody leaves I will hop on my stationary bike and pedal hard for 60 minutes, and while I am pedaling I will read my Bible for 30 minutes, and then read in a good book for 30 minutes. Then I will go sit in my recliner and pray for 30 minutes, write my blog which usually takes about 30 minutes, write in my journal as I reflect, examine my life, think back on the day and confess all known sin to God. I usually do the confessing and repenting in writing, because it is usually much more heart felt and real. Sometime in the midst of this Patty will come in to go to bed, and we will pray together. I have been not doing very well on praying with Patty but I made a new goal and commitment today so it will happen. I will then read my goals, write down what I did that day with approximate times that I spent doing each activity, and then make a “to do” list for the next day. I will conclude the day with a short prayer time thanking the Lord for all that He has done for me. Yep, Monday’s are good days.

I don’t believe I have ever gotten every thing done in a day that I planned on. There is always some things left on my “to do” list that I didn’t get done. The trick is not to get upset about what didn’t get done, but yet not to lose the desire and passion to get it all done. Because my plans on any given day are detailed and full it causes me to push and hurry all day long, but inevitably there will be an unexpected interruption, usually by a person, and I want to be flexible and sensitive to God’s agenda for my life, and be loving to people. So I have to work at being patient and relax in spite of the unexpected delay, that if I let it, will make me very agitated. Once the interruption is past I need to shift it back into 4th gear, pushing to get everything done, but knowing in the back of my head that it won’t happen now, and not letting that admission of not making the goal of my “to do” list lull me into complacency. Occasionally I just chuck the “to do” list and take a nap, watch a football game, read a Louie LaMour western, or go fishing. My goal is to be full of passion and drive to bear as much fruit as possible with my life in the time I have left, and also to enjoy life and to have fun. As long as I maintain the balance between the two, I can do both, which is a great way to live.

I believe that the number one blind spot of followers of Jesus is that they are very blind to how much we all need other people in our life. It is much more than simple physical or emotional needs, it is spiritual needs. God gives grace. Grace for followers of Jesus is His strength, inner strength, strength of will, the ability to manage the pressures and trials of life. What most don’t seem to understand is that God doesn’t give me His grace directly, He gives it to me through another person. If I am not humble enough to seek it and receive it from others, I won’t get it. In 1 Peter 5:5 and in James 4:6 it says, “God gives grace to the humble, but He is apposed to the proud”. God is the source of real and lasting joy, and He gives it to us through others. God gives peace and security, He gives it to us through others. God answers pray, my prayer for you, and your prayer for me. The primary message of the New Testament is the Church, the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, the companion of Christ for all eternity, and the growth of the Church in beauty, holiness, love, character, and unity. God made us interdependent so that we would grow in unity and love resulting in holiness and character. The natural tendency of us all is to be self-sufficient, independent, and prideful. It makes as much sense as saying, “I don’t need to stop, and have someone put gas in my car, I will just keep going”. People in our country are falling away from God in droves because of their low view of the Church, and their lack of involvement in it, both to receive grace and to give it to others.

I was reflecting and remembering after having lunch with a guy today that I am training to be a pastor. After sharing a few stories that were intended to convey the message, “If I can learn to be a pastor anybody can learn to be a pastor”, I got to reminiscing about the early days of pastoring a little church, 40 years ago. As I did I started thinking about what has changed in me over the years, and one very big thing stuck out in my mind, and it was kind of funny in that I don’t ever remember thinking this before. When I started in 1976 as a very dumb 28 year old, I was driven by my love and devotion to God. I didn’t want to be a pastor, I wanted to be a dairy farmer, but I felt sure that God wanted me to be a pastor, and there was no way I was not going to do what God wanted me to do. I was a complete introvert, I didn’t really like being around people, especially people I didn’t know, most people intimidated me to death. I used to think, “pastoring wouldn’t be to bad a job if it weren’t for all the people I have to deal with”. Over the years I have changed, and today I still love God more than ever, and that love controls me, but I also have a strong love for the people in my church, I care for them deeply, I agonize over their problems and trials, and pray for every person every week that they would grow spiritually and be champions for God. In the early days I wanted to preach well because God was watching and I wanted to please Him. Today I work very hard at my preaching and teaching because I love God and I want so much for every person who listens to me to become more like God in character, to conquer sin habits, and to become more and more righteous and holy in their living.

2 Timothy 2:5 says that athletes don’t win the prize unless they compete according to the rules. If they break a rule they are disqualified from the race and they don’t even get to finish. That is written not for the sake of athletes, but it is an illustration of life for us to understand that God, the creator and ruler of the universe has rules and if we break them there are consequences. If you jump out of an airplane at 14,000 feet without a parachute you have violated a basic rule of God and you will die. God has relational and life rules as well as physical rules that if we follow them we will be blessed, but if we break them we will experience significant trials and problems. Here are four rules that are irrevocable, set in concrete.

1. If you put others needs ahead of your own, your needs will be met, but if you put yourself first your needs will not be met.

God’s rules are counterintuitive, that is they are opposite of what our flesh, and the world think is right.

2. If you put others needs ahead of your own God will see to it that yours are met.

3. We often choose not to serve others because it isn’t convenient, that is we don’t have enough time, we are to tired, and we don’t have enough money. If we choose to serve others and do things to meet their needs God will give us strength, extra money, and keep the emergencies at bay that tend to use up so much of our time. It is an irrevocable rule of God.

4. The more we look out for others and serve them the more joy we will have in life. God gives joy, not circumstances, and when we please Him He rewards us with His joy.

Patty and I went on our first date in January of 1969, we were engaged in April of 1969, and married in August of 1969. In June of that year Patty went to her home in Petaluma, California, and I went to my home in Trout Lake , Washington. We didn’t see each other until I drove down to her home a couple days before the wedding. This was before the days of computers and smart phones so we wrote letters and mailed them to each other. I wrote a letter every day except Sunday because there was no mail pick-up or delivery on Sundays, and Patty also wrote a letter a day to me. We talked on the phone once a week, but not for very long because we were on a ten family party line, which meant that there were 10 residences that had one phone line so if one phone in a home was being used no one in the other 9 homes could use their phone. If you picked up the phone to call and one of the other 10 on your party line was using their phone you could hear them talking, so you knew who was hogging the line if they talked for very long, and often you would get yelled at during your conversation to quit hogging the line. If you picked up the phone real slow so as not to make a clicking sound whoever was talking on another phone wouldn’t know you were listening, and you could listen in on their conversation, which was another reason why Patty and I didn’t talk very long on our weekly phone conversations. The 3 months of separation before we were married with the daily letters sent and received was a very powerful way for us to get know each other and to learn how to communicate to each other. I have often thought as I Have remembered back on those 3 months how effective that was as premarital preparation. When you write with a pen or pencil on paper you usually write a bit then read what you wrote, change a couple of things, write for a bit more, and then read again what you wrote, repeating that process dozens of times until the final masterpiece is achieved. Communication was well thought out, and it was easy to go back and reread the last letter I had received from Patty several times before the next one came so I was training myself to “listen”to what she said. The Word of God is in written form and has been preserved over all these thousands of years in writing. God in His sovereignty knew what form of communication would work best for His thoughts, laws, principles, and stories to be understood by us, his family. Writing is a good discipline and skill to develop if you want to become a good communicator to people so that you influence them by your words.

Pastor Mike is in Sierra Leone, West Africa teaching at our Bible College so I preached this weekend at the main services at JBC and will the next two weeks. I am also teaching Hebrews at 8:00 am on Sunday morning and again on Wednesday night, and 5 different leadership classes, and 6 different accountability groups, and then there is the study, preparation and writing for each of the sermons and lessons that I teach so it is a pretty full schedule. I enjoy every minute of it though, and feel so blessed that I get to invest my life doing what I enjoy and what God has gifted me to do. After a day like today that is stacked full of ministry and activity, I sit in my recliner replaying the day, and think, ” Wow, what a great day, how did I get to this place where I get to do this”? I am not sure, but thank You Lord for making it happen. I will stay faithful, and hopefully I will get to do this with my life for many more years to come. We will see.

Yesterday I ran my chain saw for 5 hours straight, and today I split and stacked that same wood for 5 hours. The big difference was that I had 7 grandkids here helping me split and stack it, what a fun day it was. They all worked very hard, and we got a lot done, about one more hour of splitting and stacking, and we will be done with that job until next year. One of my and Patty’s goals in raising our kids was to teach them to enjoy working hard, that they would have the character trait of diligence. It was rewarding and fun to see 2 of our kids working with their kids, our grandkids today teaching them how to work and enjoy it. Of course working with grandpa is what really makes it fun, especially when he has grandma bring out Cokes for everyone and we have hot dogs for lunch. I had a young college age boy visit me several years ago and he said he was unmotivated to do anything but play video games, and that he was lazy. He said he knew he was lazy, he didn’t like being lazy, but he didn’t know how to fix it, to change, and he came to me for advice. I gave him a dozen Bible verses on diligence to memorize, a good book on diligence to read and told him to come back in a week and we would discuss what he had learned. He came back the next week but he hadn’t memorized any verses or read even one page in the book, to unmotivated he said. That was the last time I saw him. I have thought of that event numerous times and have wondered what I could have done for him, should have done for him that would have helped him to escape this significant character flaw. I still haven’t figured it out yet for sure, but that short experience with this unmotivated young person made me very thankful for my parents who taught me to love working, and for my parents work ethic being passed down to my grandchildren.

I ran a chain saw for about 5 hours straight today cutting up some really big fir trees for fire wood for our household to burn. Wood heat is the main heat for our entire house so getting a good supply of good wood is important. We have had wood heat since we were married 50 years ago so I have cut a lot of firewood over the years and have spent a lot of hours running a chainsaw. I enjoy cutting firewood very much, I am not sure why, but I do. Even though I enjoy it, tonight I am totally tuckered out, and I am sitting here in my recliner with every muscle in my body screaming at me for abusing them. Sitting here thinking about the day, I wonder how many more cords of firewood I have in me. I am fighting this getting old thing but it doesn’t feel like I am winning. As I sit in my recliner right now I am so tired I am struggling big time trying to focus my thinking to finish this blog. In fact I think I will call this good.

I am going to be doing the preaching in the main worship services at JBC for the next 3 weeks while Pastor Mike is in Sierra Leone, West Africa teaching at our Bible College there. I am going to teach about the “One Another-ing” commands given in the New Testament. There are 18 different commands given, and they are basically the commands given by God on how to have an amazing, wonderful, joy filled relationship with just about any person in your life. A few of the 18 are, “encourage one another, be kind to one another, serve one another, forgive one another, and accept one another”. Reading over the 18 “One Another’s” in the context of where they are in the New Testament” makes me feel this strong longing for such an environment in my life where these commands are lived out consistently. I guess they will be in heaven, and that is where I am headed. In the mean time we work hard at getting better at living these basic relational commands day after day. Through discipline they will eventually become a learned skill, and then after a season of faithfully practicing these commands they will move to habit, and then they will become character traits. Once they are embedded in our soul as character that is who we are, that is how we act, we can’t not do them. How cool is that! Every morning now I present myself to Jesus as my King and Lord, committing myself to pursue Him and obeying these commands, asking Him for the power and strength through the Holy Spirit to overcome the pull of my flesh, the influence of the world and the temptation of the devil and his demons that push me hard toward self-absorption and selfishness.