As a result of getting older I have more aches and pains, and a growing number of physical and health issues and challenges, that is life. Dealing with those is part of the character building process that God has designed so that we grow and become like Christ in character.

Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

A requirement for us to grow as a result of God’s orchestrating the circumstances of our life is that we rejoice always and grumble about nothing.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

Philippians 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

That is hard to do, life wears us out, and the strength, self-control and positive attitude needed to rejoice about everything and grumble about nothing is greatly lacking in us. A key for me is to focus on the future, set my mind on eternity with Christ, on heaven, especially on my new body that will be like that of Jesus.

Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

If there was a stream, River, or lake that I knew without a doubt had no fish in it, I wouldn’t fish in it. I fish to catch fish, seems reasonable to me. But you can catch trout in a swimming pool with a bamboo rod with 6 ft of monofilament line tied to the end with a hook and worm on the end of it. I wouldn’t fish in that swimming pool, though I would take my grandkids to fish in it. For fishing really to be fishing there has to be the challenge factor, it has to be hard to catch the fish if it is going to be really enjoyable. That is an attitude that needs to be developed, we aren’t born with it, we are born with the attitude that says, “easy and quick“. Some trips to the Kenai River there are salmon rolling everywhere and catching a limit is easy and quick, but more often than not, there are some but not a lot and it takes hours per fish. Many fisherman faced with the second scenario just quit, and come back when the fishing is quick and easy. With fishing it isn’t that big of a deal, but the problem is that many have this attitude in life, and in life the principle is consistently, “the more important it is the harder it is”, always.

Relationships take lots of self discipline, sacrifice, and humility to be healthy and growing. As I memorize the book of Philippians and read it every day in preparation for the series that I am teaching this Fall on the book I keep running into amazing principles on relationship success. This passage gives a clear command and principle, but very difficult to obey, but if successfully practiced would result in very close and meaningful relationships.

Philippians 2:3-5 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,”

Have the same attitude as Jesus😳, you have to be kidding me, can I do that!?! The great thing about being a Christ follower is He gives these impossible to keep commands, and then gives us the power to keep them if we make the commitment to obey Him. Success doesn’t happen overnight, but as we pursue obedience we grow in maturity and Christ likeness every day. Which brings up another amazing blessing as a fully devoted follower of Jesus, He forgives us over and over again as we fail and fall in our pursuit of righteousness.

I have been trying to put this principle into practice with the people that we interact with while fishing. Many of them are very difficult for a variety of reasons, and all I really want to do is fish, but when you fish with other people there is always a rub, so, I say to myself repeatedly, “Act like Jesus”, “act like Jesus”, “act like Jesus”.

The daily count for Sockeye Salmon on the Kenai River jumped up to over 70,000 fish yesterday which made the fishing very hot. We started last night at 9:00 pm and fished until 3:30 am and most everyone limited out with 3 salmon, and then 2 of us went again at 4:00 am this morning and limited out again. The rest went again from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm and limited as well. We vacuum pack the fillets and put them in the freezer, and the goal is that everyone takes a 50 lb fish box home with them on the airplane. The reason we fish from 9:00 pm through 3:00 am because there are very few other people who fish then so we don’t have to put up with the craziness of people. When a whole bunch of people show up because of the big fish numbers the term “combat fishing” takes on a whole new meaning. Many of the people are from Mississippi, Oklahoma, Germany, Sweden, Japan to experience the famous Kenai River. Very few of them know how to fish so they fish for hours and catch no fish even though there are thousands in the river. One of my favorite sports is people watching while fishing amongst them, and talking with them and watching as they attempt to catch a fish. It prompts lots of prayer from me for those I see that God will work in their life. I sing quite a bit while fishing, loudly, mostly “Jesus loves me” and I get a lot of “looks”. I had a great conversation with a guy while cleaning fish today about the church and Jesus. It didn’t go anywhere but it was fun talking about my faith to a person who didn’t have any.

Today 6 of us from our group went halibut fishing. We went for 2 hours in a very rough sea, bouncing and bucking in the boat we were in. Once we got where the boat owner, skipper, guide thought was good we fished in 250 feet of water using 5 lbs of lead to get us to the bottom. We caught 7 big halibut in about 3 hours and then had another 2 hour ride back, in even rougher seas than we had before.I was surprised that no one got sea sick in our group. This kind of fishing was a major work out cranking in those heavy lead weights. Every time our rod got a bite the skipper would have us crank up the bait and the 5 lbs of lead to check the bait, and then back down again.

Today was our best day so far on the number of fish that we caught. There are 10 of us fishing and our previous high was 12 fish for the day. The limit is 3 fish per person per day so we could have 30 fish. Today we finished with 13, but I think tomorrow will be a good day of fishing and I expect that we will get our 30 fish limit.

In the Bible Jesus fed 5000 men plus their wives and children by supernaturally multiplying five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. When Jesus first meets several of the disciples they hadn’t done very well fishing so Jesus tells them to go try again, they reluctantly obey and catch more fish than normal and the boats begin to sink they caught so many fish. After Jesus is crucified and rises from the dead He meets with the disciples, and again gives instruction to them on fishing and they haul in 153 fish. When Jesus calls His disciples, He tells them that He will make them fishers of men. Fishing as an activity and profession in the times and culture of Jesus was a big deal. In Ezekiel 47 the Kingdom that Jesus rules over on this earth after His Second Coming is described and it says that there will be very many fish and fishermen catching them. So fishing as an activity is a big deal for eternity. I am in Soldotna, Alaska fishing for salmon which appears to be a very Biblical thing to be doing, super!😀👍

The routine is that we fish until midnight, and then we come back to the cabin and everyone goes to bed. We then get up at 4 am and go fishing again. I sleep in a soft chair in the living room and fall asleep while writing this blog. You should be able to tell where. I try and get a 2 hour nap in the morning after breakfast.

So many of the average person’s problems are a result of low self control. Self Control is a character trait that is like one of our muscles, it can be strong or wimpy. We are prompted or tempted by our flesh and the desires of our flesh, the devil is constantly trying to get us to fail through bad choices working on us through his demons that are assigned to dog us, and all the stuff and philosophies in the world around us are constantly pulling us to the dark side. To steer through that 24/7 mine field we need to control our behavior, our words, our thoughts, our choices, our anger, our greed, and our eyes. Sometimes we do well and then often we have an oops, and we make a bad choice, say something hurtful, and on the list goes. Most of the time the oops is minor, but sometimes it is a major blunder that messes up our life for the rest of our life and often the lives of those around us. I call the major mess ups, wrecks. As we drive our cars we are trying to get to our destination without getting in a wreck, so we use the steering wheel, the brake, gas pedal, and sometimes the horn to maneuver through the congestion. The maneuvering of our life through the temptations of life is successful on the basis of the strength of our self control. I am 70 years old and I want to finish life well, with no major wrecks. Last night we got back from fishing at 2:00 am and some of the guys who had come back earlier, were planning on getting up at 4:00 am and heading out to fish. I decided that rather than going to bed I would sleep in the chair in the living room of the main house here at “Tim’s Place”, and when the guys got up they would wake me and I would go fishing again. On the table not far from the chair I was sitting in was 2 pieces of cherry pie, I ate them. I quit eating all sugar and wheat on January 1st and have had significant health improvements and have had zero sugar as far as I know since then, until last night. Then I felt, stupid, weak, wimpy, and though it was just 2 pieces of pie I felt very vulnerable. So, I have confessed, repented, resolved, prayed, and starting again. One of the principles is that I get tired physically and I get tired in the exercise of self control. Another major character trait that works with self control is wisdom. Wisdom says, “if you are sitting 2 feet from 2 pieces of cherry pie by yourself and are tired, move, quick”. Hebrews 6 says, “Let’s press on to maturity” which is growth in character. Every day is another adventure and another opportunity to press on to maturity.

Today is Sunday and it would have been very easy to get up early and fish, that is what this trip is about, catching salmon, and the key is to fish as much as possible. Everything else being equal the more a person fish’s the more fish they catch. But I have this commitment in my life that I made to the Lord that unless it isn’t possible I will be in church either at JBC or another church every week. I believe that God has clearly communicated that principle in His Word. So most of us went to Soldotna Bible Chapel this morning. It was a good time of worshiping the Lord and listening to the Pastor teach on the last chapter of Genesis. People have all kinds of opinions of church and the value of it, but what matters to me is God’s opinion of the church and His will for me in regards to the church. The Bible says that the church is the “Bride of Christ” and the “Body of Christ”. Ephesians 5:25 says that “Jesus loves the church”, so I am choosing to love the church as Jesus does, to serve the church, build the church, do my part to make the church healthy, and to be faithful to attend and to be a functioning part of the church. Most people have an opinion and commitment to the church based on the people in the church, but my opinion, commitment, and involvement is based on what God says about His church, so I am all in.