Today, I went fishing on the Colombia River for chinook salmon with three other staff from JBC. We all caught a salmon, which is the limit now, and they were all nice fish. We had a great time, and I enjoyed eating fresh salmon tonight. We went with a guide, and the cool thing about going with a guide is that they know what they are doing. They fish for a living, or more accurately, take others fishing and help them catch fish. If they didn’t catch fish, they would soon be out of business and working a regular job like most others. So, they have learned the skill of catching fish well, and they have learned the skill of helping others catch fish. We had a good guide today. I have gone with him many times in the last 20 years and always catch fish with him.

That is what I have done most of my life. I have been a fisher of men, as Jesus put it. I have been working at influencing people to trust Jesus as their savior and teaching and encouraging others to do the same. My life activity is based on my belief that heaven and hell are very real places where very real people will live for eternity. People are transferred from the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of Jesus because they have heard and accepted the gospel’s truth. That happens because someone influenced them, a fisher of people. Good fishermen know how to catch fish; they know the secrets and the basics of fishing; they are skilled and can teach that skill to others. Good fishers of people have learned to communicate the truth in a way that others can understand and draw them to Christ. They have also learned how to help other followers of Christ to do the same.

Most Christians do very little fishing for people. There are a lot of reasons why, but the fact remains that most Christians do little to attract people to eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

Things break or quit working at the worst times. I jumped in my pickup to go to a meeting, and it wouldn’t start because the battery was dead. I jumped it with another car and got where I needed to go. After that, it happened half a dozen times, so I got a new battery. I thought that would solve my problem, but it happened again this morning, so now I have to figure out if it is my alternator, starter, or a demon in my pickup. I have a favorite mechanic, and it is his job to figure out and fix the problem.

Our bodies are like cars; things break down and quit working. I went to the dentist this last week because two of my teeth were broken and needed fixing. I am going back tomorrow to finish the job. I had a bit of a problem with the temporary crown they put on. It was too tall, and the two incisor teeth I bite fishing line in two with wouldn’t quite touch. That is a significant problem! Now I will have to use a pocket knife like everybody else! My fix job on my teeth is minor compared to many others I hear about. People get new valves in their hearts; sometimes, they get a new heart. We all have doctors we hope can figure out and fix our problems.

Jesus talked about people who had bad hearts that needed fixing. Obviously He was talking about our spiritual heart, not our blood pump. He can fix our hearts, but He expects that we will figure out what is wrong. Self-examination is an essential part of our spiritual growth. The problem is that many people are blind to their own character flaws and sin problems. There are several reasons and causes of spiritual blindness, but probably the worst is our critical spirit and judgmental attitude toward others. The fundamental law is that the more we judge others, the more blind we become to our own faults, and we then develop major blind spots.

This last week, I worked on two different projects. One was putting chairs back into our sanctuary. We took them out about a month ago to put in a new carpet. They are very nice-looking theater-type seats and are very comfortable as well. The reinstalling process was difficult and time-consuming. The reason is that they bolt to the floor and each other, and getting all those bolts and bolt holes to line up is challenging, to say the least. One of the factors is that it is our sanctuary, and we want it to look nice and the chairs to work right, so a shoddy job to get it done quickly is unacceptable.

A second project is building a chicken coop for my wife’s chickens. She loves her chickens, so I want it to be nice, but it is still a chicken coop. It is a unique chicken coop with wheels on it so we can move it around the yard so the chickens will mow my yard, fertilize the grass, and get fresh grass to eat for themselves, saving on chicken food. I expect many people will want to look at my chicken coop, so I want it to look professional, but it is still a chicken coop.

In God’s eyes, I am not a chicken coop. In God’s eyes, you are not a chicken coop, so how I treat and talk to you matters greatly to God. To honor someone is to treat them as God’s prized possessions, whom he is working on to look like and act like Jesus.

I wrote this blog several years ago, but in light of yesterday’s blog, I thought it would be a good one to repeat.

As I grew up and older, I have had many embarrassing experiences. I tell those stories now, and they usually bring a laugh to those listening.
One of them was when I walked into a women’s restroom because I wasn’t paying attention, 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 imagine a lady yelling, “Pervert! Pervert!” at the top of her lungs. So I got up on the toilet lid 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, I thought of these prayers from Psalms.

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;
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 have all felt it ever since. We will do just about anything to escape or prevent the experience of shame in our lives.
Many self-protective methods people have used to guard against shame are wrong and 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 lives 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 lives.
A significant blessing God gives us as a reward for right living is that He fills us with glory or self-worth. Very few people have discovered or realized 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 lives or prevents from happening.
It is enlightening to collect all the verses in the Bible on shame and read them all together. 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 fears of physical pain but fears of psychological pain caused by shame. I think that is why most Christians do very little witnessing for Christ; we fear we will somehow be embarrassed.
The more time we spend with God in the Word and prayer, the more courage we will have, and we will not be intimidated by possible embarrassing experiences

Some things that we pray about to God will not get answered. It is an interesting Bible study to discover what those are. I certainly wouldn’t pray for those things. But there are also other things that God loves to answer. Again, those things are in the Bible. I read through the Psalms every month, five chapters each day, and I have highlighted most of the Psalms with different colors depending on the topic. For anything that is about prayer or a prayer, I highlight it in blue. One of the requests made to God repeatedly in the Psalms is that God will protect us from shame.

Psalms 25:1-2 To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed,

One of the devil’s main goals, as he tempts and interferes in our lives, is to cause us to feel shame. We dread experiences and circumstances that will cause us to feel shame. People often say things to others to try to cause them to feel shame; kids are frequently guilty of this.

The word kindness in the Bible is usually about how we talk to others. One of my memory verse is Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Talking with kindness builds others up and never causes any degree of shame.

As I pray for my kids and grandkids, I pray that God will protect them from shame, that they will feel a great sense of God’s love for them, and that they will fully understand their worth and value to Him.

JBC has a “Five Day Prayer Event” four times a year. We pray together from 5:00 to 10:00 am and 5:00 to 10:00 pm Monday through Friday. There is an average of 50 people in the prayer room every hour, with one person praying at a time and everyone else agreeing with them in their mind and heart. My goal is to pray for 40 of the 50 hours we have prayer. Every time we have it, this event is a very enjoyable spiritual experience for me. There is such a strong sense of God’s presence that my thinking mainly focuses on Him and my relationship with Him. I listen to my thoughts, assuming He will communicate with me, and usually take lots of notes on my thoughts. One of the negative things about previous prayer times is that my hearing is so bad that even with my hearing aids turned up until they whistle, I can’t hear many people when they pray. It is very frustrating for me. But now we have table microphones all over the tables where people sit and wireless headsets that I can wear so I can hear each person’s prayer perfectly.

I often think we have a difficult time hearing from God as we live life, but during these prayer times, it is as if I have a headset on from God. It works great.

I have been working for about four hours after prayer ends the last couple of days, helping to put back the chairs we took out for the new carpet to be installed in our sanctuary so I haven’t had much time to write my blog. So here is a short one

As you know, I discovered about one year ago that I am allergic to gluten. Whenever I eat something with gluten in it, most food with wheat or barley in it, my muscles go crazy, twitching, jumping, and spasms. I have done well in avoiding foods with gluten this past year and, as a result, I now sleep like a baby. Patty has done great when she shops, checks labels, and buys gluten-free food. But last night, she gave me spaghetti that was not gluten-free. She has purchased gluten-free spaghetti, so I assumed this was some of that. Not too long after eating my dinner, I started to feel my muscles starting to feel funny. I said to her, “That was gluten-free, wasn’t it. Her eyes got big, and she gasped, “Oh, honey! I forgot!” Needless to say, I had a terrible night and slept little. Patty felt bad, but that didn’t stop me from getting some mileage out of it with the kids and grandkids as I harrassed her about trying to kill me. It only takes a little bit of the wrong thing in eating to make my life miserable.

Jesus made it clear that what we eat with our mouths is not nearly as damaging to us as what we take in with our eyes and ears. There is so much garbage in our world today on television, movies, social media, and especially the internet. Even a little bit of the poison in the world will damage our hearts. We need to have a holy fear of taking it in and guard ourselves from the constant barrage of evil stuff all around us. What we bring into our brains and hearts matters a lot. What we look at and listen to dictates what we think about, and what we think about influences our choices and behavior. Don’t compromise in this area of life; even a little bit will make your life miserable.

One of the questions that I often ask people is, “What would it take for you to be the happiest person alive on the earth?” I often ask myself that question as well. I ask Patty periodically, “What one thing could I do that would move you to being the happiest wife alive?”

Joy and happiness are what we all want more than anything else: just to be happy. But, the problem is that we don’t know what it would take to be ultimately happy, and if we had a clue, we wouldn’t know how to get that thing, which would be the joy of our life. When surveys are taken, the most often given answer is good health; if I could just feel good and have energy, I would be happy. Another top answer is good relationships with family, marriage, friends, and work. If I really felt loved and accepted, then I would be a very happy person. Some also would say that success in life would bring a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that would make life great.

A few people are bubbling over with joy because they have discovered the source of supernatural joy.

Psalms 21:6 For You make me most blessed forever;
You make me joyful with gladness in Your presence.

God gives joy; he gives a little to some people, more to others, and a lot to a few. God has conditions on His gift of joy. If you meet the conditions, He will give and give.

Condition #1. Don’t grumble and complain about anything; God always gives joy to those who rejoice and thank God for everything, good and bad.

Condition #2 Ask God for joy. God loves to give joy to those who seek it from Him and not the world. The emotion of sadness is genuine, and often, we don’t even know what brought it on or how to get rid of it, but acknowledging to God that we are down and would He please give us some joy is a healthy thing in our walk with God.

Condition #3 The Bible repeatedly says, “In God’s presence is fulness of joy.” The Bible also says that if we seek Him we will find Him, and if we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. The best way to seek God and draw near to Him is to faithfully practice the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading, prayer, gathering with other believers, and worship.

Condition #4 Recognize and acknowledge that trials and tribulations are good things God uses to make us holy and like Himself in character. James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy when you have trials knowing that they make us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Condition #5: Acknowledge that life is hard, full of tough things that steal our joy and make us sad. That is the way God created life; it is supposed to be like that, but heaven is coming, and then we will have the ultimate joy beyond our ability to comprehend now. It is amazing how meditating on heaven will fill our hearts with joy despite circumstances.

Pigs enjoy wallowing in the mud, and it seems some people enjoy wallowing in their misery. Those who seek joy in the right places will have it, but those who don’t, won’t.

I am home from my elk hunting trip to Eastern Oregon. We had three cow tags: my grandson Isaac, son Seth, and myself. Seth lives in Idaho and brought his ten-year-old son, our son Sam, Isaac’s Dad also came, and my friend Larry came, too. We had a great time camping together and eating all the good food Patty had fixed. Hunting was a blast, and we all killed a cow elk. During the day, when we weren’t hunting, we did a lot of fishing. I took my rubber, two-person pontoon boat with us. When I got home with my elk, it took Patty and me an entire day to cut all the meat off the bones, grind it up using our meat grinders, and put it in zip-lock bags and into the freezer. We ate some of it last night, and it tastes delicious. Elk are big critters, so we put a lot of meat in our freezer.

One of the things that happened on the trip was that my iPad got crushed when we brought in the tip-out on the RV we were using. It is now in one zillion pieces. That is why I am just now getting a blog written. It took me forever to figure out how to get all the data on my crushed iPad transferred to my new one.

The iPad cost me $1,400 so it was an expensive hunting trip, but it has been several years since I have had the joy of hunting with both my boys together. It was a great blessing from God for which I am very grateful.