There are four of us left at the lodge and we have four days of fishing left before we come home. We fished last night until midnight and caught 20 salmon and then we got up this morning and went Halibut fishing and we caught eight halibut and a big flounder. We came home and processed all of the fish, vacuum packing all of it and putting it in the freezer. By then it was dinner time and I am now sitting in a recliner trying to decide if I am going to go fishing tonight and catch some more salmon or continue to sit in my chair and read between naps, and be in bed by 9:00 pm. Part of the equation is tomorrow is Sunday and church is at 9:30 am and we need to leave here at 9:00 am to make it on time, and I hate falling asleep in church. Typically what we do at night is to fish until 1:00 or 2:00 am so we can catch two limits of fish. The limit is six now so if we fish on both sides of midnight we can catch twelve. We are sitting here discussing various options. We can fish tonight, get to bed by 3:00 am, get five hours of sleep, get up at 8:00 am and sleep in church. Another option is to go to sleep now for five hours, be at the river at 11:00 pm and fish until until 9:00 am and go to church in our waders, and sleep and smell bad. Another one is to go fishing now and listen to a sermon on line while we are fishing and call it good, then come home and go to bed and sleep as long as we want. So the question now is, “what will win, my desire to catch more fish or my weariness?” I will tell you tomorrow.

This is a rather boring blog; I am sorry about that; I couldn’t figure out how to jazz it up without making longer than it is. My goal is not to impress you with my busy schedule but to motivate you to make the most of your time, bear fruit, much fruit, and more fruit for the Lord. Over the years, I have taught myself to enjoy being “busy” without letting it burn me out and to accomplish as much as possible with the time I have been given.

On May 6th, Patty and I flew to Fairbanks, Alaska, to visit our daughter Shelly, her husband, and six kids. We had a wonderful time, and on May 23rd, we flew home, and on May 25th, six of us left on a 2,000-mile bicycle trip from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast. We finished the trip and arrived home on June 23rd. On June 26th, I drove to Huntington, Oregon, and camped and fished for catfish on the Snake River, the Brownlee Reservoir, for five days. I then went to Twin Falls, Idaho, to visit our son Seth, his wife, and four kids for a couple of days, and then drove ten hours home on July 2nd. On July 13th, I flew to Soldotna, Alaska, to fish for salmon and halibut, and I am here now having a wonderful time at “Funny River Fellowship Lodge – where the tug is the drug.” In six days, on August 10th, we fly home, and I will bring with me a hundred pounds of frozen fish. On August 17th, Patty and I will fly back up to Fairbanks, Alaska, where she will hang out with Shelly and the grandkids, and I will go with my sons-in-law, Philip and Kyle, to the most northern part of Alaska to hunt for caribou. I plan on killing one and bringing back on the airplane a hundred pounds of frozen meat. We will fly home on August 30th, and on September 1st, I will put my Pastor hat back on.

This year I will be teaching four weekly “Leadership Classes,” a weekly discipleship hour class on “Demons and Angels,” I will be involved in five “Men’s Accountability Groups” each week, I will attend and be involved in staff meetings, Elder meetings, I will do a variety of kinds of counseling, I will travel and speak approximately once each month, I will meet with and coach three or four other Pastors in other churches, I will have a mentoring relationship and teaching time with a young guy wanting to be a pastor, I will occasionally preach at JBC weekend services as needed, and I will preach each week at our Wednesday service through the book of 2nd Peter. I will also pray an hour each day for those in JBC with the goal of praying for everybody once each week, attending three corporate prayer times at JBC each week, and praying for 40 hours in each of our four “Five Days of Prayer.” I will write 100 handwritten notes each month to people in our church; I will write my blog daily; I will write on a couple of book projects; I will study, read, and write sermons and lessons. I will coach people in JBC who want to start ministries, I will oversee the “Parking Lot Project” until it is finished, I will begin to develop and work with people in a new major ministry called “Care and Shepherding,” I will meet with various staff, Elders, and key leaders as needed. I will attend various meetings with other pastors approximately monthly, I will participate in several different seminars for pastors, I will work on and teach several seminars at JBC and other places, and I will work on plans to start another daughter church, someplace and some time.

In the midst of that ministry schedule I will I will maintain my own daily and weekly spiritual disciplines, I will keep the Lord first in my life, and seek Him diligently as I serve Him. I will be very faithful to my exercise goals and routines. I will work on home projects, I will finish the restoration project on the 1969 Mustang, I will start restoring my 1950 Ford Club Coupe, I will play golf and work on becoming a better golfer, I will visit our kids and grandkids regularly, and often, I will fish and hunt periodically, I will pray with Patty every day and take her on a meaningful date every week.

In order to maintain that schedule faithfully, I will write and read goals and daily “todo” lists.

Also, in the process of pursuing ministry, family, and personal goals, I will be flexible, not rigid; I will rejoice always and never get uptight about deadlines and schedules, I will be gracious and kind to people no matter how much I am pressed and behind schedule, I will get plenty of sleep, and I will eat right.

Then in May, I will put my “play” hat back on. Hallelujah, I am looking forward to that.

I am still working on discovering foods I am allergic to which cause a muscle reaction, that is, my muscles twitch, get charlie horses, or hurt. Glucon is a major one, additives in some foods like hot dogs are also a big one, and today I figured out that most things that are “diet” foods because of aspartame or some other stuff, is also a significant contributor. I am not sure how many different things I will find are a problem, but I know that since I have been extra cautious of my eating, I have been feeling better and better. I have had this severe restless leg, restless arm syndrome for years, and I have lost more sleep than I can remember. It is kind of sad to think that I could have possibly been free of this aggregation years ago had I known what the problem was. It is my fault because I have, for most of my life, been very undisciplined in my eating. I should have guessed because when I would fast for a prayer event, I would always feel better. I suspected a food issue, but I was so addicted to eating whatever I wanted I blocked it out of my mind. Several years ago, I quit eating wheat and sugar and noticed a marked improvement in my health, but I was so stupid I started eating it again. Oh well, better late than never, and I am 74, so it is later.

The older I get the more I realize that self-control is the major issue in most areas of our life. My flesh, the world, and the devil have been major controllers of my life for most of my years. Read the Bible every day, pray every day, don’t get angry at anybody for any reason, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and on the list goes. Self-control is a character trait that we grow stronger and stronger in as we work on it, and it is also a “fruit of the Spirit,” that is self-control isn’t possible without God’s power working in us, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t work in us in a vacuum, we work together with Him.

If I live to be 120 years old I may have this figured out, but I will be so senile I will have forgotten it all!!

I got up this morning and headed for Ninilchik, Alaska, pulling my drift boat with two other anxious and excited fishermen. We planned to launch the boat off the beach into the ocean, motor out half a mile, and fish for Halibut in 20 feet of water. We did that yesterday, and we limited out with six halibut in less than two hours. The ocean was flat, the sun was nice, and the fellowship was great.

This morning when we got to our launch point, the wind was blowing, the sea was rough, and the fog was so thick we couldn’t see the shore when only 50 feet away from it. We fished for two hours, and we didn’t have a single bite. It was freezing cold, and one of the guys was seasick. We got back to the lodge, and we decided to go to the Kenai River and catch sockeye salmon. So many fish have gone up the river at this point that Alaska Fish and Game permitted the commercial fisherman to put their nets across the entire opening of the river. Needless to say, we didn’t catch a single salmon; I didn’t even have a bite.

Bad fishing day, at least the catching part.

One of my goals is never to complain, grumble, or fuss about anything and to rejoice and praise the Lord for everything. Some days I do good, and others, I do bad at keeping that goal. I am doing much better now than last year, and the bad days are getting farther apart. That goal was much easier to write than it is to do, at least consistently. My biggest struggle is when I am with a group, and they are fussing with each other about fishing, government, weather, or whatever, and not join in the conversation with them. One of my most significant failures happens while watching “Monday Night Football” or another sporting event with a bunch of guys. The “group gripe” really takes over, and it is so easy to join right in, and it is even fun.

But my greatest struggle in not being negative and rejoicing always is with my health and how I feel. It is such a bummer not feeling well, having continual pain, being tired all the time, and not being able to do what I could do just a couple of years ago. I am getting better and better at accomplishing this goal with my mouth, but my main struggle now is in my thinking. I find myself sinking into a “poor me” self-pity self-talk regularly, especially at the end of the day. My method of conquering this problem in my flesh is to memorize many Bible verses on praise, rejoicing and to set my mind on them when I catch myself sliding into self-pity thinking.

I have six books on my IPad on the theology of Demons and Angels, and have been reading them during my time in Alaska when not fishing. I have been writing a lot on my thoughts and reflections on this reading and my Bible study on the topic. I am planning on teaching a class during our discipleship hour on Sundays on this topic starting this Fall and I expect that it is going to last through April. I have enjoyed learning a lot on this topic and I am very excited about teaching on it as as well.

As with all my teaching the bottom line will be practical. How can we live successfully as Christians overcoming the world, our flesh, and the devil, and grow in our character as we struggle and strive in our life. We can successfully resist the demons assigned to us and can get stronger and stronger in our faith as we do. It is like playing football; you train and work, you compete, and you win. If you know the principles, the rules, and follow them you win.

2 Timothy 2:5
Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

I love teaching the Bible and the principles in it that allows us to grow in character and bear much fruit for Jesus. I hope to do that until I step into heaven.