I am am reading a fascinating book right now, “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise” by Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool.  It basically teaches how any of us can become exceptional at most any skill. The chapter that I am reading now is talking about our ability to remember information. The authors use several studies and examples to demonstrate that the part of our mind that we use to “remember” is like a muscle. If we exercise it and push it on a regular and routine basis it has the capacity to grow very strong.  One of the examples was a study of London taxi cab drivers who have to pass what is called the most difficult test in the world to get a license to drive  a taxi in London. To pass the test they have to memorize all the streets and routes from and to various places in London. When they did brain scans on these drivers they found that the memory part of their brain was very large. One of the things I learned about Parkinson’s is that almost half of those with it develop significant senality problems. One of my goals as I work at fighting this disease is to work on memorizing Bible verses for 30 minutes every day. I have memorized over 500 verses so far and aiming for over 1,000 verses by the end of 2017. Reading this chapter in this book has increased my motivation in scripture memory, but the most valuable blessing is the power of God’s Word to work in my heart, mind soul, and spirit to bring about life change. I have noticed a significant improvement in my ability to remember information. One of the statements in the book was that our ability to recall information easily and quickly, and to hold multiple thoughts in our mind at the same time is a major key to “thinking clearly” and being able to solve problems.

One of the more interesting passages in the Bible is Hebrews 2:10, where it says that Jesus is “made perfect through suffering”. Jesus is God, equal with the Father, but He became flesh, was born into the world as a baby, and as a baby he had no character, He had to grow in character as you and I do. The phrase, “made perfect” means He became perfect in character, and it was accomplished by suffering. If there was ever a person who could grow in character easily, it would have been Jesus, but still suffering was required in order for Him to become perfectly mature and grown up as a man. The point being, if it was required for Jesus it certainly is going to be a requirement for you and I to grow in character. I don’t like suffering, I don’t even like minor irritations, but I can’t grow mature without them and the more I have the faster I will grow. Sufferings and trials don’t automatically produce character. In many people they produce bitterness, anger, self pity, and major grumbling and grouchiness. The Bible says, rejoice when you suffer and then you will grow. We don’t rejoice because it is fun, we rejoice because God said to, and that obedience in the face of pain brings great grace and life change from God. What I am in character when I enter eternity is what I am, suffering is over. I want to enter eternity as much like Jesus in character as possible so I can enjoy Him, and He can enjoy me for ever. If I have that eternal perspective sufferings become my friend, which doesn’t mean I go looking for trouble but it does mean that I get over fussing, whining, and feeling sorry for myself when life gets hard, it is supposed to be hard.

The most important character trait that a person can have is being teachable.  The presence of that character trait guarantees that a person will continue to grow all of their life. Having the mind-set of a life-long learner…being open to learn from anyone at anytime on any topic. I have met very old Christians who are still teachable and I have met very young Christians who are not. I have met some very humble people and I have met some very arrogant people who have a hard time listening to anyone but himself or herself!  I have met a some who wanted to learn, but didn’t want to be taught. They wanted to learn on their own and were not really open to having anyone else speak into their lives. Pride is a major problem that we are born with, and a key way to measure how much we are conquering it is by the measure of our teachable spirit and also a major way of pursuing humility is by working hard to be teachable, to seek out mentors and teachers for various areas of our life.

Yellow jackets seem to be really thick this year, by that I mean a lot, like millions! There was a nest in the grass shoot of our broken riding lawnmower and when I started to work on it they were every where. There was a nest in our barbecue that we haven’t used in two weeks and when I started to move it to the deck I got surprised! They built a nest in the exterior mirror of one of our cars, under the eves of our shop, our deck, in our pump house, and on the under side of our picnic table. I went and bought 6 cans of that yellow jacket spray and went on a rampage. I think I will buy 6 more tomorrow, along with a dozen yellow jacket traps. I wonder if the devil has enough power to create? He probably doesn’t have a lot of power, just enough for some little bugs like yellow jackets and mosquitos. It doesn’t say so in the Bible but I believe there won’t be any yellow jackets in heaven.

An area of everyone’s life that is almost always a struggle is in managing our money. Most of the people in my life are always working at staying out of debt and paying bills and dealing with emergencies. Regularly there is the choice of purchasing something that is on the “not needed” list. You could do without it, but you would really like to have it. You think about it, decide to get it and then change your mind, and then you decide again to get it, back and forth. If you are married you try to decide together and then sometimes you fight about it.  If you are wanting to faithfully give to the Lord through your church or other mission you often feel guilty when you move into the “extravagant” in spending. Then there is the same struggle with the use of time as we attempt to manage it well. There is the very serious and profitable use of time and then their is the fun and frivolous. How much of each? Words that I want to be a description of me is responsible, faithful, wise, self-controlled, but then having fun is good and healthy and renewing. Some guidelines that have worked well for Patty and I are (1) peace between us, that is we are both comfortable with the decision be it time or money or both, (2) daily asking God for wisdom in making choices, (3) not being in a hurry so we can think clearly what we want to do, (4) managing both time and money on paper before we spend it in reality, and (5) always thinking about our use of time and money from an eternal perspective. The struggle to be wise, generous, and balanced as a steward of the treasure of time and money is what potentially moves us to Christ like maturity in our character.

In this hour I would ask of the Lord God only this: that He would give His blessing to our work, and that He may ever give us the courage to do the right. I am convinced that men who are created by God should live in accordance with the will of the Almighty. No man can fashion world history unless upon his purpose and his powers there rests the blessings of this Providence.”

That may sound like an ideal leader, but that speech was given in 1937 by the Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler. In his speeches, he challenged people to love their neighbors, to care for the poor and sick, and to take a stand against violence.

Matthew 7:21-25 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

The fact that Hitler will hear Jesus say “depart from Me, I never knew you” is easy to believe. But many, many people today who claim to be Christians will hear those same words. I can’t think of any thing saddler than the shock those words will be for many at the judgment when it is to late to do anything about it.

I don’t intend this blog to be a judgmental one, but one of genuine, heart felt compassion  for people who have a superficial religion and not a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

Today was JBC’s annual “Baptism at the Lake” service and potluck. There were 32 people baptized, and as always it was a beautiful and inspiring time. Each person who was baptized shared a testimony about the circumstances of how they became a Christian, and a bit of the history of their life. Many of those who shared have been attending JBC for only a short time and I haven’t gotten to know them much yet so it was great to become more acquainted with them by hearing their story. One of the things we teach at JBC is that many people say they are Christians but few really live like it, and a key to living like Jesus did is to be a “fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ”, one whose highest priority in life is to follow, serve, and please the Lord. Our own personal  Baptism is a public declaration that He indeed is Lord, master, King of our life. We all tend to drift away and wander from that commitment so it is a good thing to everyday declare Him the Lord, master, and King of your life. I believe that daily saying as a simple commitment of our heart, “Jesus, You are Lord of my life, I will follow You” results in increased self examination of how we are living and changing in character, an increase in power from the Holy Spirit to successfully live a life pleasing to Him, and an increase in awareness of what His will is for our life. It has been a great day.

this year for our annual salmon fishing trip to the Kenai River in Alaska we made a rule, “no trash talking”. When you have over a dozen guys living together in cramped quarters, fishing together, eating together, getting minimal sleep, getting really tired and possibly grumpy, some catching more fish than others, everyone having their opinions on the best way to catch fish, and on and on, words are often said that irritate, hurt, and offend. The goal was that everyone would work hard at being nice, kind, gracious, patient, and extremely self controlled. It was a great week of fishing and fellowshipping because everyone did indeed work hard at speaking words that edified and gave grace. It didn’t mean that we didn’t talk about things that we felt strongly about, and we did talk politics, we just recognized that the strength of our relationships that we had was very important, and we could communicate what we believed was true without damaging those relationships. I find it so easy to slip into a “worldly” way of talking in my attempting to make a point. Every night when I review the day and confess all known sin to God, I find most of what I confess are words spoken to others. Dear Lord, please help me to speak words of grace always.

I am laying here in my own bed thinking about the last week of fishing, thinking about my Mom recovering from hip surgery and heart surgery, reading church prayer requests, reading Facebook entries and issues and struggles people are having in life. I continue to have emphasized to me the fact that a main role that God has for me in this chapter in my life is to pray and intercede for people. If you were walking by a burning building and someone inside screamed for help and you ran in and rescued them from sure death, afterwards you would feel a strong sense of having done something noble. I feel that when I pray. I have a growing faith in the fact that when I Pray God listens and acts and things change for all eternity. The great challenge for me right now is to manage my life and time so as not to let all the fun things, the busy things, the mundane things suck up all my time. Exercising self control over the pull of my flesh, the temptations in the world, and the responsibilities of life is the the discipline that I need.

This picture is a portion of the sockeye salmon that we caught today. This year the fishing is very slow compared with previous years. Two years ago in the same amount of time that we fished today a dozen of us would have had 72 fish. But it is still a lot of fun, and for me it is the experience, the challenge, the getting away, the fellowship that makes the trip not the fish. We are going to fish for about 15 hours straight starting tonight at about 7 pm. If the fishing is super slow we may go back to fish camp and sleep from 1 to 3 am the only “dark” times. We head back home Friday morning, for normal life once again.  For the couple of hours each day that I am not fishing, eating or sleeping I read my IPad. Emails, Facebook and messages keep me up on what is happening in the rest of the world, especially my family. I read the news, sports news, fishing reports, weather, and my Bible. I use my prayer App on my IPad to pray for family, friends, and church .