In 1918, at the 11th hour, in the 11th month, and on the 11th day, World War 1 officially ended.

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, because of the thing from which it has freed us.

In 1954 President Eisenhower signed a bill changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day as a day to honor veterans of every war in American history for their bravery and courage in the face of the enemy who was attempting to take from us our freedoms.

Oct 19 (Reuters) – The rape of a woman aboard a Philadelphia subway witnessed by as many as ten passengers, some of whom appeared to film the attack, could have been stopped quickly if someone had called 911, police said on Tuesday.

That doesn’t sound like “the home of the brave” to me; it sounds like the land of the “chicken-hearted cowards.” I can’t imagine a situation like that where a woman is being attacked, hurt, and humiliated in a public place with ten people watching, and no one does anything.

The people in our country are being trained to be complacent, afraid, and conformists. The rapidly growing government control of the decisions of its citizens is training them to be consumers and spectators who hope things will get better someday. The recent explosion of “cancel culture” has only thrived, in part, because of the neutered agreeableness and abject fear that has become the national norm.

Whether we wear a mask or are vaccinated is really not what matters. What matters is that at some point in this journey we are on, the government will tell us that we can’t gather to worship; oh, I guess they already did that; they will say to us that we can’t witness or share the gospel, the information people need to know to believe so as not to spend the next billion years in torment in hell instead of heaven, they will tell us that we can’t own a Bible, that we can’t pray with our children or teach them about God. Not very long ago I wouldn’t have believed any of that possible in our country, and it still might not, but it certainly looks like a very real possibility and more so every day. And if it does, what are we going to do then?

A group of guys meets together on Monday nights in a shop with a big-screen TV on the wall, a cooler full of soda, carbonated water, water, and coffee, as well as fried chicken, pizza, barbecued tri-tip, chips, and candy. We do a lot of talking, fellowshipping, eating, and we watch some football as well. I enjoy watching football with friends, and I especially enjoy the camaraderie.

Neither the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Chicago Bears are in my top ten favorite NFL teams so I wasn’t watching very attentively, and at the end of the third quarter everyone went home because Pittsburgh was ahead 20 to 6, and the Bears were playing awful! Boring!

When I walked into my house Thomas had the game on and before I looked at the score I said something about the boring game, and he said, “it isn’t boring now. “ I looked at the score and could hardly believe my eyes. In the 17 minute drive back to my house the Bears scored 21 unanswered points and were in the lead! Pittsburgh kicked a field goal with 2 minutes left and won the game by 2 points, but not before Chicago tried a 65-yard field goal with 2 seconds left in the game.

A lot of effort, time, planning, and money go into winning football games. Winning is fun. My kids played sports all through Junior High, High school, and College, and Patty and I missed very few of their games over 20 years, and we would yell and scream and pray that they would win.

The Bible talks about winning in life and uses sports as an illustration;

1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

Hebrews 12:1 let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

For us as Christians, winning isn’t beating someone, it is finishing the race well, having followed Jesus faithfully, having served Him well, bearing much fruit, growing in our character, and glorifying Him with our life.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day;

We will all stand before Jesus at the end of our life and give an accounting of our life. Some will receive many rewards and crowns and some will receive nothing.

Many believers are like the Chicago Bears, it is getting close to the end of the game, and it is time to start thinking seriously about winning.

By the way, you are invited to watch football with me on Monday nights.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man,
but its end is the way of death.

Isaiah 55:8-9 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

The most frustrating thing about our government right now is the obviously stupid decisions that are being made. They are stupid because they are so contrary or opposite God’s way of doing things. In fact they are so obvious that it appears that our leaders are simply rebelling against God, purposely doing everything contrary to His laws. Of course, they are not; most of our leaders have zero understanding of God’s ways or his laws. But even done in ignorance the results are the same, you break God’s laws and judgment follows. We are living in a country and in a time when Almighty God is going to pour out His great wrath down on our country, and the scary thing is we are living in it.

So how do we then live our lives in the midst of this coming storm. We follow God’s principles and laws as individuals, families, and churches. We want as much as possible to live our life so as to be a stark contrast to the world. Those outside God’s family will become very anxious about life as God’s judgment comes and we will be a lighthouse for them.

God will provide all the strength we need to live life victorious during these days. He will also give us the joy the world is so desperately seeking in all the wrong places and ways. And He will give us a peace that is beyond all comprehension that will guard our hearts and our minds as we set our thoughts on God.

As I have grown up and grown older I have had many emarrassing experiences. I tell those stories now and they usually bring a laugh from those listening.

One of them was when I walked into a woman’s restroom because I wasn’t paying attention, and went into a toilet stall, locked the door and then heard the sound of high heels clicking on the hard tile floor as a bunch of ladies entered all at once. I wasn’t sure what to do as ladies pulled on the handle of my locked door looking for an empty stall. I realized that if they looked under the partition they would see my cowboy boots and I would be discovered. I could just imagine a lady yelling “pervert! Pervert!” at the top of her lungs. So I got up on the lid of the toilet and squatted down hiding until they had all left and I managed to sneak out without being discovered. Whoooeeee that was close. As I squatted there on that toilet these prayers from Psalms came to my mind.

Psalms 31:17 Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon You;

Psalms 25:2 O my God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies exult over me.

Psalms 71:1 In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be ashamed.

The human psyche is difficult to understand regarding motives, fears, and the need for personal worth or glory. Many verses in the Bible talk about shame and our fear of it. It appears that shame is the first emotion that Adam and Eve felt after their sin, and we all have been feeling it ever since. We will do just about anything to escape or prevent the experience of shame in our life.

Many of the self-protective methods that people have used to guard against shame in their life are wrong, unwise, and will often compound shame if discovered. Some of those methods are lying, blaming others, boasting, hiding, anti-social behavior, and running away, literally and figuratively.

One of the consequences of sin in our life is shame and freedom from shame is a reward that we receive from God when we seek Him and stay close to Him. God’s protection from shame is an often repeated prayer in the Bible suggesting that He can prevent shame or cause and allow shame to come into our life.

A major blessing that God gives to us as a reward for right living is that He fills us with glory or self worth. Very few people have discovered or realize that God gives and takes away a sense of significance as a motive to seek Him, to live for Him, and to obey Him. He does that with experiences that He either brings into our life or prevents from happening.

It is enlightening to collect all the verses in the Bible on shame and read them all together. There are over a dozen prayers to God asking Him to deliver from or protect from shame and embarrassment.

Many of our fears in life aren’t primarily fear of physical pain, but fear of psychological pain caused from shame. I think that is why most Christians do very little witnessing for Christ, we fear that we will somehow be embarrassed.

The more time we spend with God in the Word and in prayer the more courage we will have and we will not be intimidated by possible embarrassing experiences.

Butchered a cow today. We hung it up in my pump house that I made into a “cool room,” where we will let it hang for a week before we cut all the meat off of the bones and run it through my grinder for hamburger. I insulated my pump house real good, put an air conditioning unit in the wall and purchased a thing called a “coolbot” which overrides the thermostat on the air conditioning unit so that it will go down to 40 degrees. Letting the meat hang for at least a week makes the meat quite a bit more tender than it would have been otherwise.

I try not to do this, but I accidentally poked a hole in the ponch with my knife and “stuff” sprayed all over me! Whooooeee that was smelly! It took us about three hours to finish the job and we had a tractor with a front end loader and a chain.

In the book of Levitucus they butchered thousands of bulls. Those priests must have been amazing when it came to butchering a critter.

Leviticus 1:3-9
If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf. He shall slay the young bull before the Lord; and Aaron’s sons the priests shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting. He shall then skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head and the suet over the wood which is on the fire that is on the altar. Its entrails, however, and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer up in smoke all of it on the altar for a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Have you ever wondered about this system of dealing with sins in the Old Testament? It is strange that the killing of a bull and sprinkling his blood around would be a “soothing aroma” for God. But all the instructions on what to do and how to do it were God’s idea.

A couple of observations: sin was a big deal to God, and it needed paid for and the price included death and thousands of bulls were killed because of all the sins of the people. Jesus was 100% God and 100% man and He lived a perfect life, not sinning even once and He became our sin for us, God looked at Jesus as if He actually committed my sins and then God the Father killed His only Son to pay for my sins. That is amazing and strange all at the same time. My sins certainly are a big deal to God, but I get to live with God forever with a body like Jesus’s because He died for me, and I have believed that to be true and have accepted that amazing gift.

I am so thankful that I wasn’t born in the Old Testament as a Priest who had to butcher all those bulls, just one old cow was a chore today.

I used to think that “Terminal fishing tackle“ was called that because I would lose so much of it getting snagged on the bottom of the river, so it was terminal because it was soon gone. But I was reading some Cabella’s advertisements and it seems that the term comes from being on the “end of the line.” So terminal tackle is like hooks, swivels, weights, and spinners that are where the line terminates. It is funny how some words and phrases come about.

I live inside a terminal body because it won’t be long before I come to the end of the line. In the New Testament Paul called our body a tent because it is so terminal, and he also said that in this body we groan. I certainly can identify with that, I groan every time I get out of my recliner, or my bed, or when I get into or out of my pickup, or into or out of my boat, when I tie my shoes, and when Patty asks me if I want to go shopping!

2 Corinthians 5:1-4 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

I have memorized those verses, and I was thinking that the reason we ache more, and get tired more is because God wants us to think about heaven more, which I certainly do. Paul also said in that passage that he would prefer to be absent from his body and to be present with the Lord, and I say a hearty amen to that.

My Dad died of liver cancer. I wonder what I would feel or think if I was diagnosed with liver cancer tomorrow. I am pretty sure I would think, “see you soon, Jesus!”

My Dad used to say, “Do the right thing because it is the right thing; you shouldn’t even have to think about it.” Some people have quite a few things that they do every day, which are not necessarily right or wrong but because they are important. They do these things day after day with seldom an interruption because they are important, and they don’t even think about it or have a personal debate about whether they are going to do them or not, they just do them. Those people are faithful, reliable, and dependable. They are almost always successful in every area of their life. Those who do what is important every day without fail have trained themselves to be that way. They weren’t born that way; they became that way by effort, discipline, and training.

The first step is to decide what is important and what we should do daily or regularly, like brushing our teeth. Then make a list of these things that make up the basic foundation of our life. If they really are important, and necessary, and we haven’t trained ourselves yet to be faithful in doing them, make a goal and read those goals every day. If you read them every day, you will do them. Keep it up until they are an established, entrenched habit.

Obviously, everything has a beginning, and the beginning for those who have become faithful in doing what is important is writing a goal and reading it every day. Without that beginning discipline none of the others are apt to follow except maybe ones like brushing your teeth.

I read my Bible every day, I spend time in prayer with God every day, I review the day and confess all the sins I can remember every day, I exercise every day, I write my blog every day, I spend 15 minutes minimum every day memorizing scripture, I take my Parkinson’s medicine every day, I brush my teeth every day, I read in a good book every day, I step on the scales every day, I read my goals every day, I record how I spent my time every day, I tell Patty that I love her every day.

John 15:15
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Jesus called His disciples friends. I want to be a friend of Jesus.

Job called his friends, “false friends.” proverbs says there are friends that stick closer than brothers. Proverbs also says some friends bail when adversity comes. One of Jesus’s friends, Judas, betrayed Him for money.

Real friends encourage when life is tough. Real friends pray and help in times of need. Real friends endure the ups and downs of life. Real friends forgive offenses, slights, and stupid words quickly and unconditionally. Real friends are loyal and faithful. Real friends are patient and tolerate differences of opinion. Real friends can have an argument and recover quickly. Most people don’t have real friends, they just have friends, acquaintances.

The only way to have real friends is to be a real friend. A person becomes a real friend by choosing to be, by a commitment to be a real friend. The way things are going we will soon be a friendless culture. COVID, masks, vaccines, and elections have thinned the number of friends most people have down to zero.

Next to my family my friends are a great treasure in my life, a gift from God, that makes living life in the midst of pandemics, political chaos, financial uncertainty, and totally unpredictable tomorrow’s very doable.

There are 150 chapters in Psalms and I read five of them every day so I read Psalms through each month. Most of the Psalms are prayers so as I read them each day, I use them as a guide for my own prayers. Many of them I have memorized so I can pray them, through out the day as situations warrant them.

My birthday was Wednesday, and I am 73 years old. Not that old, but definitely in the “old man” category. Psalms 71 is a prayer of King David when he was an old man, so I have made it mine as well. There are 24 verses in the chapter so I cut out about half.

O Lord God, You are my confidence from my youth.
By You I have been sustained from my birth;
You are He who took me from my mother’s womb;
My praise is continually of You.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.

But as for me, I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And of Your salvation all day long;

O God, You have taught me from my youth,
And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.
And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to all who are to come.
For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You?
You who have shown me many troubles and distresses
Will revive me again,
And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
May You increase my greatness.

The cool thing about praying the Psalms is that there is a growing confidence and faith in God working in response to my prayers because it is right out of the Bible.

I have found different chapters of Psalms that fit every area of life, and most circumstances that I typically find myself in and I have memorized most of them.

Periodically I feel down in the dumps, like tonight. Usually I don’t have a clue why, but I am pretty sure I am feeling down because all our kids and grandkids have all gone home after being here for a week.

I will probably stay up later tonight than I should, and about midnight eat a piece of lemon meringue pie that I got for my birthday, maybe two pieces, yeh, two pieces for sure! I will sleep in until 8:00 am in the morning, then go into Sportsman’s Warehouse and spend the gift cards that I got as gifts for my birthday. Then I will take Patty out to lunch, and when we have finished eating I will talk her into going to Harbor Freight to buy a tool with the cash that I got for my birthday, 73 one dollar bills. Then a bit later I will go watch Monday Night Football with some friends, if you want to watch it with me, you are welcome. Wow, what a fun day tomorrow is going to be, I am feeling better already!

Emotions are funny things. You can’t predict them, and you for sure can’t control them. The main thing is, I don’t let them control me, with the exception of the pie, of course. I am fortunate in that if I am going to have a downer day it is almost always on Mondays which I take off so I can do what I have planned tomorrow which is a perfect remedy for a blue funk for me.