Today we rode our bikes from Idanah to Bend, Oregon, about 75 miles with 5,000 feet of elevation gain. We had a lot of climbing as we went up Santiam Pass, but we managed it alright. The hard part of the day came after we went through Sisters, and the heat went up to about 98 degrees. Fortunately, that was only about two hours of riding. The traffic was heavy, but there was a pretty good-sized shoulder most of the way. Tomorrow we are headed to Mitchell through Prineville and we will be camping in the City Park.

Yesterday’s ride was great in that I felt good, but today’s ride was full of pain, beginning to the end, I took lots of ibuprofen. I imagine tomorrow will be worse because it is kind of a cumulative effect. My butt hurt, my neck, my shoulders and my hands. The good news is we have a rest planned for day five, so things should get in shape by then and the day off will allow muscles and various body parts to heal up.

Mentally managing pain, fatigue, and discomfort is a key part of successfully completing a major bicycle trip like we go on every year. It would be so easy to quit a trip like this when the pain starts, because the fun level has dropped substantially.

Endurance is a character trait needed to successfully accomplish anything of significance in life, and we are admonished a number of times in the Bible to run with endurance the race God sets before us. Many more people quit than finish at a variety of things in life, especially in our present culture.

With the way my recent fishing trips went, with every thing going wrong that possibly could go wrong I was a bit nervous about our bicycle trip that we started today, but everything went super well. No flats, no dogs, no break downs, no mosquitos, no head wind, rumble strips were not a problem, my butt didn’t hurt to bad, my neck didn’t hurt, my legs were in decent shape, and though there was a ton of trafic, no one yelled at us, honked at us, or ran us over! Man, bicycle trips don’t get much better than that!

Much of the shoulder on the road was non-existant so we rode on the white line. Cars and trucks passed us one after the other as people were headed to Detroit Lake but they gave us plenty of room. All the traffic buzzing around you could make you nervous if you let it. A lot of people today are nervous, scared, and anxious about every little thing under the sun, and rarely ever attempt to do anything with a shred of risk involved in it. The phrase, “be safe” has gone to seed with it’s overuse. My brothers and I spent many hours working on the farm with “antique”, near worn out farm machinery but no one ever had a serious accident as Dad was always nagging us about safety. He was also a super nag on gun safety as we hunted and shot at targets. But he let us float down the raging White Salmon River on a tractor inner tube, and thought nothing of it, though I doubt many would attempt it today.

I have made seven bicycle trips with number eight set to start tomorrow at 6:00 am. I have ridden with about ten different people in the various trips, and have enjoyed them all. The longest trip was to the Grand Canyon, then up go Yellowstone, and then home, about 4,000 miles in 60 days. I have made two trips across the U.S. The Northern route which was across the northern part of the United States ending in Portland, Maine, and the Southern route which started in San Diego, California, and ended in St Augustine, Florida. I have also made two trips to Fairbanks, Alaska. Next year I am going to go across the U.S. again starting in Newport, Oregon and ending in Yorktown, Virginia. That trip will be about 4,000 miles and take two months. I am hoping several will join me. That trip will probably be an un-supported trip, meaning I will carry everything I need on my bicycle. On the trips we camp in campgrounds along the way and eat mostly freeze-dried meals with water heated on our little “jet-boils”.

This year’s trip will be 1,200 miles and last 20 days. We will begin at my house, go East to Idaho, go north through Idaho, turn East before we reach Canada and go into Montana, then South until we get to Twin Falls, Idaho, where my son Seth lives with his family. From there we will load the bikes on the Motor Home and head home.

I do these trips each year for several reasons. One is that I spend all day on the bicycle listening to sermons, lectures, and discussions on the Bible and various doctrines. In the evening I write sermons and Leadership class lessons, and usually get an outline done each day. I can get so much more done on these trips because I don’t get interrupted and can really focus. A second reason is that the emotional energy that I lose all year long from pastoring is all restored on these trips. They really do reenergize me, and get me all jazzed up for another year of ministry. A third reason is that bicycling is the best therapy for my Parkinson’s that there is. A fourth reason is that I get to be by myself on my bicycle eight to ten hour each day and I spend the time listening, thinking, praying, and getting close to my Lord.

The command to rejoice always, to grumble about nothing, and to be happy is given in the Bible in various ways at least a dozen times. Most people don’t make much of an effort to obey that command, they just act how they feel and their feelings are a result of their circumstances. When events go wrong, plans are frustrated, and crisis happens, they feel disappointed, angry, and frustrated and they then grumble and complain, becoming irritable, and grumpy.

It isn’t natural or easy to exercise self-control over our words, our actions and our self-talk when things happen that are not what we want, but the fact is, we can if we work at it, and train ourselves to rejoice always. This past week the bearing on my boat trailer burned up right in the middle of Portland as I was headed off on a fishing trip that I had been planning for a year. After we got the boat and trailer back to my house the four of us set off again for our fishing trip, and we arrived in camp at about 3:00 am. After I got my big 10×20 tent set up a big wind storm came up and basically destroyed my tent, ripping it apart, so I slept in my pickup with the seat reclined. The wind blew hard all week and the fishing was not even close to being as good as last year. I got home this evening and Patty told me there must be a pipe leaking in the attic because water was dripping from the ceiling. I crawled around in the attic trying to find the source of the leak and as a result of all the dust and cobwebs I haven’t been able to stop coughing for the last hour.

In order to successfully obey God’s command to rejoice always I have rehearsed what my self-talk will be like during these kinds of times so that I am positive, cheerful, always trusting in the Lord, always believing that He causes all things to happen in such a way as to grow my character to be like Him, and always asking Him for strength to act right and to glorify Him. After the crises I replay the event in my head several times thinking of ways I could have been more positive.

The morning that we got to our camp I walked down to the boat ramp at about 7:00 am to check things out and there was a big, aluminum boat that looked very expensive sunk right next to the dock. Apparently the big windstorm had caused waves so big that they had swamped this boat and sunk it tied to the dock. While I stood there looking at this major crisis the owner of the boat walked up and he was not a happy camper. I attempted some conversation to help cheer him up a bit, but I think I was just irritating him so I walked back to camp.

I had a fantastic time this past week camping and fishing with friends because I chose to despite more than the average amount of problems, challenges, and things to be fixed.

The fishing isn’t as good as last year, but it is getting better. The wind has been bad so doing some bank fishing because it wasn’t real safe with the boat.

The plan from last year was to spend five days on the Snake River near Huntington, Oregon, the second week in June, camp, fish for catfish, and catch hundreds of giant catfish. Six of us left Jeffereson Sunday afternoon to pursue that awesome plan. Today, the wind is blowing an average of 17 mph with gusts to over 30 mph and is predicted to stay blowing all day. I have a really big tent, 10×20 ft, that got destroyed in the wind last night, so myself and others slept in my pickup. Right now, at 6:45 am, I am sitting in my pickup writing this blog, thinking, wow, I love excitement, variety, the unexpected, and challenges, it couldn’t get much better than this! Because it is blowing so hard right now, myself and a couple of the other guys are thinking of driving 30 miles into Ontario, Oregon to Rusty’s Pancake House for breakfast, then stopping at a truck stop place for a shower, and then make some new plans for today, which include catching hundreds of giant catfish! We will see what happens, adjust accordingly, and thoroughly enjoy the process, hopefully it will include hundreds of giant catfish!

Myself and three friends left at 1 pm for Huntington, Oregon and the Snake River to go catfish fishing. We were towing my boat, and in Portland a wheel bearing went out. We waited in my pickup for 3 hours for the tow truck to get there. He finally made it and he took the boat and trailer back to my house. We drove back and ate a great dinner that Patty fixed us, and now we are back on the road just about where we had to turn around earlier. We decided to fish with two other friends who left before us with a pontoon boat. We can only fish four at a time on the pontoon boat but we can rotate. It should be a great fishing trip as good as it has started. The picture is of the boat and trailer getting loaded on the truck, it barely fit.

Every follower of Jesus struggles with consistency. The reason is obvious, there is a lot fighting against our faith in Christ. The world as a whole regards Jesus Christ as a fairytale, and those who profess to follow him as idiots. The devil and his demons are constantly, 24/7, talking to us, resulting in thoughts of doubt regarding all we have heard and learned about Jesus and the Christian life. Our own sin nature is anti-faith, anti-god, and anti-supernatural. The New Testament is constantly exhorting and encouraging consistency, endurance, and perseverance so as not to backside or become lukewarm in our faith, because so many do.

Colossians 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard.

There seem to be seasons of backsliding, and one of them is summertime. For some reason, many think that while on vacation, they can skip reading their Bibles, skip their time with God in prayer, skip attending church, and skip any times of self-examination, reflective thinking, and confession of sin.

It doesn’t take long living in a chosen state of lukewarmness to be locked in there permanently. The thought that we can easily backside and then be incapable of reversing our state of uselessness to God ought to create a fear that would motivate us to persevere in our Christian disciplines. But, no, most think it is no big deal; they can jump back into living the Christian life when September gets here easily, and with no problems. Those who think so are naive at best and fools at worst.

Not much in life is as rewarding and fun as this.

This is a repeat of a blog that I wrote about a year ago.

A question that I get asked often is, ”Aren’t we supposed to be submissive to the government?” ”When is it OK not to be?”

God is all-powerful, He is sovereign over all. But He has delegated some of His sovereignty to four different human institutions.

The first institution that He has given authority to, and instruction on being submissive to is the family.

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.

1 Peter 3:1 In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,

The second institution that God has given authority to is business, the workplace. Obviously in this verse we can change the word slave to employee and master to boss. We all know that the boss is in charge and gives the orders.

Colossians 3:22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

The third institution that God has shared His authority with is the church.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

And the fourth institution that we are instructed to be submissive to is our government.

Romans 13:1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Each of these institutions has a realm of jurisdiction, that is, God has given them authority over a particular area of life. If they attempt to exercise authority outside the realm of their God-given place of jurisdiction, they will create rebellion, anger, and war.

Pastor Mike Dedera and I function as co-pastors. He preaches most of the primary weekend services, and I teach Leadership classes and preach at our Wednesday evening service. He leads the staff meetings, and I usually lead our Elder meetings. We meet almost daily to discuss and talk about the decisions and direction of the church. But I am still the Senior Pastor, the boss. I have pastored at JBC for 44 years, Mike, about 12 years, I am 72 years old, and I don’t think he is 50 years old yet.

So, let’s suppose as Mike’s Boss I order him to sleep in a different bed than his wife, even a different room because if he gets COVID she is almost guaranteed to catch it sleeping in the same bed with him. What will his reaction be to my command to him as his boss? It will be anger, resentment, and rebellion, and justifiably so. This example is laughable, it is so ridiculous. My authority as Mike’s boss doesn’t extend into his home, no matter how well-intentioned my motives are. My jurisdiction stops at the church.

Governor Brown of Oregon has attempted to extend her jurisdiction, her authority into our church telling us how many can meet together, and who can do what. She has attempted to move into my home commanding us, under the threat of fines and arrest, not to have more than six family members gathered together at one time. Giving her credit for having the noblest of motives does not matter one iota! She has no jurisdiction in my church or my home, and my resentment, anger, and rebellion over her attempt to control them is not being insubmissive to God’s will.

There was a very Biblical reason that our countries Founding Fathers put the First Amendment into the United States constitution. It basically means that government can’t boss churches around or tell them what they can’t do or have to do, the church is outside the realm of their jurisdiction.

Authority gone too far in the family is called child abuse, spousal abuse, and people are arrested, tried, and jailed for it. Bosses often become abusive, and overbearing, and you quit and find another job. Pastors often start thinking they are God and Lord it over people in their church, and those people then find another place to call their church home. So what do we do with this blatant abuse of power from our government? At this point I am just going to ignore it, see what happens, and go from there.

I invite you to come along with me on my adventure.