As I was organizing my week and the rest of the month of May today, I recognized how differently I use time now than I did even ten years ago. I used to rarely say no to anything. When asked to do something or an opportunity opened up, I figured out how to squeeze one more thing into my already hectic schedule. It didn’t seem right to say no to something that would make a difference in someone’s life. If I did say no, I felt guilty about it for weeks. Now, I say no all the time; I think I say no more than yes. And I rarely feel guilty about it. For most of my ministry years, my biggest challenge was managing my time, trying to get as much squeezed into a week as possible. I don’t remember ever getting tired. If I did start feeling a little weary, I blew it off as a thinking problem and went even faster. Those days are gone.

Now, the challenge isn’t managing my time; it is managing my energy. I used to run out of time way before I ran out of energy, but now I run out of energy way before time. My goal is still to make the most of my time, but now I choose more carefully and thoughtfully what I will spend my time doing. I still have plenty of mental and emotional energy, but the physical gas tank has shrunk. So now, I pray more, read more, write more, teach more, talk more, and study more. All those require minimal physical energy, and I have enough left to go fishing or build Patty’s chicken house. I struggled for several years with this transition, but now I am very comfortable with this chapter in my life, and I expect that I will actually bear more fruit for God in my old years than when I had energy to burn. Managing my energy and saying no are new skills that I am getting better and better at. 

Mother’s Day is this Sunday. I have an electronic picture frame that rotates pictures every 20 seconds. The photos are about 9×12 inches and very bright, making them easy to see. It is right next to my chair, and I only have to look up, and to my right, and there they are. I have a lot of pictures of grandkids, kids, and their spouses, fishing pictures, hunting pictures, pictures of Patty, and pictures of my Mom and Dad. When I look up, I pray for whoever is on the screen. This week, I have been focusing a lot on my Mom. We don’t have the privilege of picking our parents; God does that. I don’t know why some people get great parents, and others are not so good. I was blessed by God, who gave me a fantastic mother who loved the Lord and taught me much about the Lord and how to live for Him. As I think about who I am, my character traits, and my values, there isn’t much I can take credit for; my Mom was the one who shaped my spiritual life. We never missed church, Sunday School, Bible camps, vacation Bible Schools, Youth groups, and prayer meetings. It wasn’t an option, so there wasn’t much sense in fussing about it. So much of my life I owe to my parents; God truly blessed me. I look forward to seeing them when I get to heaven. 

It is Saturday, May 3rd. I just got back from “Men’s Breakfast.” I ate 15 pieces of bacon, four sausage links, a bunch of eggs, and a very big cup of coffee. Pastor Mike told wild whitewater rafting stories and made spiritual applications to rafting. I had a very good morning. Today, I will finish Patty’s chicken house. The fence is completed, and we are all set up for 40 chickens. I will also apply for all my hunting tags today; May 15th is the cut-off day. I have my hip replacement surgery set for June 2nd, and I have some questions I need to answer online before May 12th, so I will take care of that as well. I will spend some time working on the sermon I preach at the Evangelical Church tomorrow; it is basically done. I just need to think up some cool stories for illustrations. I will take at least one nap during the day. Sundays tucker me out, so I try not to overdo things on Saturdays and get to bed early so I am ready for a great day on Sunday. I had today planned out, tomorrow planned out, and all of next week planned out as well. I have my goals, a calendar, and a to-do list; I am ready. People often ask me about God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. Using one of Pastor Mike’s illustrations, life is like rafting down the Desuettes River. God has set the right bank, the left bank, and the volume of water. As we guild the raft, we can go on the right side, the left side, the easy way, the hard way, and we can camp where we want. Some decisions are better than others, but they are still our decisions. The goal is not to wreck your boat but to have fun. Also, enjoy your time with others going down the river with you, and help them out as they help you. It won’t be long, and we will float right into heaven. 

My good friend Dave Kennedy died last night. He was among the most gracious and kind people I have ever known. Several years ago, he was the support vehicle driver for a bicycle trip we did from Yorktown, Virginia, to Jefferson, Oregon, about 2,500 miles. I was having some significant muscle cramp issues on the trip, so I slept in the passenger seat of my pickup truck. Dave felt terrible for me and slept in the driver’s seat. That was about six weeks. I got so I slept pretty well, and he did as well. We had a lot of pleasant, personal, and spiritual conversations sitting in that pickup for six weeks, trying to get some sleep. It is funny the way you make connections with people and how you become friends. Today, I got a call from the son of an old friend I hadn’t seen in 25 years. My old friend is in the hospital and isn’t going to live many more days. The son said that his Dad had asked to see me before he died, so I went and visited him tonight. He couldn’t talk much, so it was a one-way conversation, but his kids, whom I remembered well, were reminiscing with me. I prayed several times while there for my old friend, holding his hand. Death is sort of surreal. But as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, as believers in Jesus, death has lost its sting; now it is a gateway into the glory of heaven. 

I have had trouble walking for a while, so I had X-rays taken in Albany, and it was recommended that I see an orthopedic surgeon in Portland. We had a meeting today, and he said both my hips were “train wrecks.” So we will schedule a hip replacement surgery and then a second one about three months after that. It looks like it will have to be in August because I have an Alaska fishing trip in the last week of May, a bicycle trip in the last ten days of June, and another Alaska trip from July 14th to August 7th. I asked what he thought of that, and he said, whatever I could handle. I have been limping around for the last year, so I didn’t figure that another three months would matter that much, pain pills are cheap and work relatively well. The doctor was a good salesperson and said that judging from the ex-rays, I would feel much better and would be climbing in and out of fishing boats easily and walking very comfortably in my hunting adventures. That all was excellent news to me because I had decided to retire from hunting and fishing because of its pain, but now I can pursue both for another 20 years. For the last couple of years, I have had to lay my bicycle down on the ground, straddle it, and pick up the bike under me because I couldn’t lift my leg over it. I thought it was because I was just stiff, but I have some bone spurs that have grown on my hip joint, greatly restricting my motion. I anticipate that I will be like a new man, and I am looking forward to renewed physical activity, hunting, fishing, biking, and working around my house. When Jesus comes back I will get a brand new, glorified body, like that of Jesus, and it is incomprehensible how great that will be to live in. This will be a small reminder of that day, which is true because of what Jesus did for me on the cross and my faith in Him. 

As I get older, my energy level is shrinking. My gas tank is shrinking. Sometimes, I take a nap after just thinking about doing something. I definitely sleep much more than I used to. I have always wanted to do ministry right up to the day I died, so I have been praying and asking God for some easy ways to do ministry. That is kind of a funny prayer request, and does seem on the lazy side. A couple of days ago, I received an email from a missionary friend of mine. He had gone through my leadership class several years ago and had been using the material to disciple Christians where he was ministering. He had told me that one of his goals was to translate the material into the language of the people he was working with. One of my goals this year was to rewrite and improve all of my leadership class lessons I have been teaching for the last 45 years, teach them in the Wednesday night service we have at JBC, and have a good quality video recording done for each lesson. Once we had that done, I could give the videos and lessons to any church that wanted to use it. A number of Pastors have already started using the videos on YouTube. My missionary friend took the videos and, using AI, translated the entire thing into the language of his country. He sent me a video of me teaching my leadership class lesson in a different language. The voice was my voice, but the words were definitely not my words. It even had my mouth and lips synced with the words. It was amazing to watch myself teaching in a language that I had no clue how to speak a single word in. As I watched it, I wondered how many people in this country would hear my leadership classes and have their lives changed by it. I thought, thank You Lord, it doesn’t much easier than this. 

I am sorry that I haven’t blogged for several days. I have been in Eastern Oregon shooting sage rats, whose official name is Belding’s ground squirrels, and catching big monster trout. There was no cell service where we were, so I was forced to just hunt and fish! About 20 of us went over together, and we had great fellowship as we camped, hunted, and fished together. We built a huge campfire, sat around it in the evening, talked, and some roasted marshmallows and made smores. I go on several hunting and fishing trips during the year, and this is one of my favorites. However, it is usually the last trip I went on that is my favorite, so this year’s “rat hunt” will fade in the favorite column until next year, when it will bounce back to first. Why is a particular trip a favorite? Because it is the most fun or enjoyable for any number of reasons. The Lord made us beings in His image that can experience joy. Sometimes, we call it having fun or being happy. God designed our strong desire for pleasure to motivate us to seek Him. Psalms 16:11 says that “in His presence is fullness of joy.” Heaven will be the ultimate experience of joy forever, and hell is the total absence of joy forever. Life is full of miserable times; I think about heaven during those times. It won’t be that long, and I will be there with my new glorified body. 

One of my greatest strengths over the last 55 years of pastoring has been my love for reading, studying, and learning. A Pastor is called on to do various things, but the most important thing is the quality of his teaching and preaching. People don’t go to church because it is their duty; they go because they want to experience God and learn how to live a life that is pleasing to Him. Anointed preaching and teaching of the Bible so that it becomes life-giving is the engine that makes any church go. Good preaching has several ingredients, but a major one is good studying and preparation. There has to be substance to the content. 

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

1 Timothy 4:16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

My Mom read to me a lot before I could read, and then when I could, she would constantly take me to the library, and we would leave with a big box of books. It wasn’t simply the ability to read that I got, but the love of learning. 

After I started pastoring, I read commentaries on the Bible, many books on leadership, books written by successful pastors who had built huge churches, and books on the various skills that I needed to be a good Pastor. Besides reading their books, I took many successful pastors out for lunch, getting counsel from them and picking their brains for some information that would help me. Now, at this stage in my life, I am trying to pass on information I have learned to some young pastors and pastor wannabes. 

Today, I attended Jefferson Baptist Church at the 8:30 a.m. service and was blessed by the entire service; it was terrific. Then, I drove up the road to Jefferson Evangelical Church, where I am pastoring now, and had another super fantastic service. We had two different people give testimonies of how the Lord changed their lives, three special music performances that were anointed, and I wrapped it up with a ten-minute sermon. Then, we had a big family gathering with around 50 people in the JBC gym, which included dinner, an egg hunt, lots of games, and lots of conversations with each other. It was an unbelievably blessed day for me. Now, I am sitting in my recliner, thanking the Lord for my incredibly blessed life. I have the world’s best marriage to an angel of a wife, eight children who are all champions for Jesus, six sons-in-law and two daughters-in-law who are amazing, and 28 grandkids who all are lovers of Jesus. I have pastored Jefferson Baptist Church from its small beginning of a handful of people for 50 years, and now I am pastoring another church with a wonderful family of 50 people whom I love and who love me. Thinking back on my life, I can’t think of anything I would change. I have been a journal writer most of my life, and much of what I write about is all of the sins I have committed, the dumb things I have done, the stupid and prideful stuff I have said, the conflicts with different people I have had, and the poor choices I have made. I try to write in such a way as to learn what not to do again so that I can learn from my failures and grow in wisdom. Knowing how much I have failed in my life and then reviewing the fantastic blessings of family and ministry I have experienced, I recognize what a recipient of God’s love, grace, and mercy I am. It is very humbling and overwhelming. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for a perfect Easter Sunday. 

Romans 5:6-8 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus Christ died for me. Jesus was one with the Father; He was God. God the Father took all of my sins and put them on Jesus. He looked at Jesus as if He actually committed my sins. The Bible says He became my sin. The Father then poured His wrath out on His Son for my sin, He turned His back on Jesus because He had become my sin, and their oneness was broken for the first time in all eternity. I was saved, born again, adopted into the family of God, forgiven, and destined for heaven when I admitted that I couldn’t save myself, believed the gospel, accepted the free gift of salvation, and committed to following and obeying Jesus, my Savior, and Lord.