I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He is my creator, my God, my Savior, and my Lord. One of my assignments given to me by Him is to be a witness for Him to others. Heaven and Hell are very real places where very real people will live forever. Jesus came into the world as a person like me, lived a sinless life, and then died on a cross as payment for my sins. He provided the way for my sins to be forgiven so that I could be adopted into His family. For that to happen I first needed to admit that I couldn’t save myself by my good works, then I needed to believe the gospel ”Jesus who is God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, became a man, lived a perfect life, took my sins upon Himself, was crucified, rose again 3 days later, and is alive today”. Then I made a commitment to Him to follow Him, love Him, and serve Him. At that point my name was written into the ”Book of Life” and I was born again.

Now I have an assignment given to me, a responsibility to share the good news of the gospel with others.

Romans 10:13-15 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without someone to tell them?

John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

John 17:18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

Acts 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Being a witness for Jesus is not easy because people aren’t interested in hearing the gospel. But all of a sudden they become much more interested when life as we know it starts to fall apart and there is an increase in the fear of death.

This Coronavirus thing is a major pain in the butt for me, but there is a major increase in the receptivity of people towards the gospel. Light is most obvious when it is dark. We as believers in Jesus are called the light of the world, and now is when our light will be attractive to people who are in the dark. Three things are necessary for me to be super bright; the first thing is I don’t grumble at all about life and people, not even a little bit. The second thing is I am prepared to share the gospel with people in a way they can understand and makes sense, and the third thing is I am always looking for an opportunity to share, an open door.

One of the main things that is contagious from this pandemic is fear, it goes from person to person. Because we are people,we are relational, we enjoy being with other people, and we tend to act and feel the way those around us act and feel. We call the general values, actions, and behavior in an area it’s culture. Various parts of the United States have different accents or ways of speaking, and those born and raised in that area pick up that accent. There are those parts of culture that are good, and there are those parts that are bad. The Bible commands us to be different than those around us when their behavior is bad.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

During this time when many are catching the virus of fear we who are followers of Christ need to be radically different than those around us.

The first thing in conquering fear is to recognize that fear is not OK with God, He expects us to be strong, confident, and brave.

Exodus 14:13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today.

Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

John 14:1 Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

There are over a hundred commands in the Bible to not fear. That many commands suggests that this is important to God.

The next thing is to acknowledge when we are afraid and then not excuse, justify or blame someone or something for our fear.

The last thing is to ask God for strength to be courageous, ask more than once, ask every time there is even a little bit of nervousness.

Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There are four things that I do to make my prayer to God for courage and strength more formal, more serious, and I believe more pleasing to Him. The first thing is I pray on my knees. In the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was afraid He prayed on His knees. I also pray out loud rather than in my head, Jesus prayed out loud in the Garden. There is something powerful about hearing our own voice as we talk to God about our problems, our needs, and our fears. I often write my prayers in my prayer journal and then reread them over and over in the days following, which brings me to the fourth thing that I believe is very important if we are serious about becoming ”more than conquers” rather than wimps. God is not into token prayers, easy prayers, convenient prayers, prayers that cost us little in the way of time. Jesus prayed for an hour in the Garden as He faced His greatest fear, then went back two more times, and then He went to the cross with courage.

I desire to be a strong and courageous overcomer who is not intimidated or afraid of anything, but I can’t be that kind of person on my own, but when I depend on God He will make me strong, and then I will be an influencer of others to do the same, seek God.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

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

I wrote out all the things to be thankful for and that are positive aspects of the present craziness. When I get to feeling irritated I read them over, works very well.

1. I normally spent 10 hours each week studying for my theology class on Sunday morning and 10 hours for my Wednesday night service and 6 hours for my leadership classes, and then 6 hours of the actual meeting times. That is 32 hours of extra time that I have this week. I am going to use it to pray a couple more hours for everybody in our church, I pray for everybody every week, but I will double that time this week so if anybody has needs you want me to pray for email me at deefduke@icloud.com and I would be honored to pray for you.

2. Because of the extra time I have I can get caught up on my study time and actually get ahead in my lesson and sermon preparation.

3. I can do more reading in books that I just haven’t had time to get to.

4. I can spend a bunch more time memorizing Bible verses.

5. I can spend some more time working on the 1969 Mustang.

6. I can get some “honey do’s” scratched off my list.

7. I can get some extra sleep.

8. I can fish more😀😀.

9. I can ride my bicycle more.

10. I can shoot my bow more.

11. I can spend some time writing on my book project.

12. I can get started on building my fish pond .

I have more but you get the idea. Love ya all.

I didn’t write a blog last night, I cut and pasted Psalms 91 from my on line Bible. It is a good Psalms and I used it as a substitute for writing. I decided last night that it would be wise for me not to write a blog because I had such a rotten attitude, and I was afraid it would leak out into my writing. Many people are feeling a growing fear, even dread as the information about the virus ramps up. I am feeling no fear or worry, but I am feeling a growing anger, resentment, irritation, and frustration. It isn’t so much the situation as it is the constant flow of information about the situation that after awhile get’s me so worked up I feel like yelling at somebody. The faucet in our sink leaks, just a little bit, but it drips and it makes a fairly loud sound dripping into our stainless steel sink. The sink is only a few feet from our bed, and I can hear it all night long. Proverbs says that a nagging wife is like a continuous dripping. After awhile the constant dripping just wears you out . So what does a person do? I am trying very hard to be a good model to everyone who knows me of what it means to trust God, and not fret, worry, complain, or grumble, about life, and this stupid virus and the stupider reporting of it by the media. Oops, sorry about that, bad attitude leaked out. So, I dealt with this mounting turmoil inside of me the same way I deal with every problem in life, I went fishing, surf fishing to be exact. Standing in the ocean casting out as far as I could, then reeling my line in real slow, hoping to catch a “red tailed perch”, the limit is 15 and that was my goal. All I caught was a little flounder and a sea gull that was dumb enough to get tangled in my fishing line. But it worked it’s magic on me, and I came home feeling very refreshed and ready to face some more irritating dripping. For people,who don’t fish, it would be very important for them to identify an activity that does the same thing for them that fishing does for me. A key ingredient for me is being outdoors where I see God’s creation and am reminded of His divine nature, His eternal power and invisible attributes.

Psalms 91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you.
You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down. Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation.”

When I was a Freshman in College in 1968 there was a world wide pandemic called the Hong Kong Flu, it to started in China. 1 to 4 million people died globally, with 34,000 deaths in the USA in 18 months, there are 155 deaths so far in the USA from Corona, and about 9,000 globally. I remember the news and the discussions about the flu as a student in college. We had one television on campus which was in the Student Union Building, and we would crowd in there to watch the news, most of our interest then was in the Vietnam war, which we were in the middle of as a country, and then switch over to Mission Impossible. There was some concern back then about the pandemic, but not even close to what is happening in our day. Some might suggest that the reason it is so much more of a big deal now is because it is so much more serious. I guess we will have to wait and see what the numbers are when it all blows over. I have and will continue to follow the “rules” mandated by the government on preventing the spread of the present disaster, but my guess is that when we get to the end of this adventure it will not be any worse than my Freshman year in College.

My purpose in writing this is not to be a sceptic or critical of government leadership in controlling the spread of this present pandemic, but to ponder in writing about the real cause of the country wide hysteria among many people. As I read the news articles and watch the various reports on my IPad there is an obvious sensationalizing of facts and information. Most would assume the purpose is to sell programs and increase income. Because of social media and the internet the information gets repeated over and over with each cycle growing a bit in magnitude and seriousness. The interesting thing, (I guess if I wanted to sensationalize a bit myself I could say, “the alarming thing”, but I will stick with “interesting”) is how easy it has been for the media, which is controlled by a relatively small group of people, to control the general mood of our country.

Many are asking me if I see any prophetic significance in the present events. One of the clear Biblical truths is that the devil, his demons, and the kingdom of darkness will become increasingly more active in controlling the world and the lives of people as we get closer to the end. The Apostle Paul in the New Testament says he was not ignorant of the devils schemes, but I think we mostly are. In asking again the question, “ what is the media’s motive in puffing up and sensationalizing the news and current facts and information, my conclusion is that they are being controlled by the kingdom of darkness and they don’t even know it.

So, the bottom line of this whole blog for me is, I will keep my wits about me, I will not allow the devil to lead me around by the nose, I will read the Bible every day as my main source of truth, I will pray a lot asking God for wisdom and discernment, I will not grumble about anything, I will rejoice about everything, and I will attempt to influence as many people as possible to follow Jesus, and do my part to thwart the devil’s plan to control the world through fear.

I go Sky Diving most summers. It is a tandem jump where I am strapped to an experienced jumper. It is a major adrenaline rush, and a lot of fun. The cool thing is that I don’t have to make any decisions other than choose to go. The guy I am strapped to basically pushes me out the door of the plane, pulls the ripcord, steers the chute, and lands. People who hear that I am going often say things about how dangerous it is. The place where I go has had one non-death accident in 14 years and thousands of people have jumped so the odds of me getting hurt are extremely small. I bicycle an average of 3000 miles a year on public roads with cars and trucks passing me often 6 inches away, same story. I am going white water rafting down the Roque River and the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon this summer, same story. I grew up in an era with no seat belts, no airbags, no car seats, no flue shots, hard medal dashboards, no guards on pto shafts and skill saws, and I drank a gallon of raw, non-pasteurized milk a day. What are the odds of me getting sick from the Coronavirus? About the same as getting killed sky diving.

So, there are two facts running along side of each other like tracks on a railroad. One track is, the odds are small so don’t get uptight about it, enjoy the experience. The other track is, the potential for significant consequence is obviously there so take some precautions and keep the odds low. When I go down the Colorado River this August I am going to wear a life jacket all the time and when we go through major whitewater, I am going to wear two, a regular one and an inflatable one. I also am going to wear a helmet and a wetsuit when going through the big rapids. But I am not going to stay home, and miss the adventure of a lifetime because of fear. If I die from skydiving, I die, everybody is going to die. I I get hit by a car while riding my bicycle and get killed, not a problem, I am anxiously looking forward to eternity with my new, glorified body and joy incomprehensible forever. So far, I have ridden about 50,000 miles on public roads on my bicycle with no accidents, but I still wear a helmet, I have a rear view mirror that I always am checking, I googled “brightest and best rear blinking bicycle tail light” and bought it, in fact I bought 2 of them, and I hug the outside of the road as I ride. I also enjoy, immensely the experience of bicycling, the scenery, the exercise, the challenge, and I never once think about the possibility of being turned into hamburger by a truck whose driver didn’t see me or was talking on his cell phone, it would just ruin the trip.

So, the conclusion of the story is, I take precautions like everybody else does to keep the virus from spreading, but I have zero anxiety, fear, or worry about getting sick. Me getting uptight about what might happen just ruins the adventure.

We all are control freaks to one degree or another. We like to be in control of our life and the things around us that have some bearing or influence in our life. If we were driving down the road and the steering on our car suddenly quit working and we had zero control we would freak out for sure. Right now there is a whole lot in our life that a month ago we were in control of, that is now outside of our control, and people are freaking out. We really never had as much control of our life and circumstances in our life as we thought, it was an illusion that was brought about by life being normal and predictable. During normal life we do a very poor job of trusting in the Lord, depending on Him, seeking Him, and serving Him, because we think we have things under control. Now, all of a sudden the steering wheel has come loose in our life and panic sets in. A great way to start every day is with a declaration or commitment to the Lord that we are going to trust Him, follow Him, love Him, and serve Him. I am starting my morning prayer now with a confession to the Lord of pride and self sufficiency revealed by my chaffing under the restraints put on me, our ministry and our church by others. I don’t like the government telling me what I can and can’t do, and I am writing that statement with a great deal of restraint. So as I begin each day declaring my love and devotion to the Lord, asking Him for joy, peace, strength, and wisdom, I also confess my pride to him in always wanting to do things my way. As I ask for His strength each morning I include in that prayer a request for patience, a quite spirit, contentment with what I can’t control, and always I ask for many opportunities to be a witness for Jesus to those who have no hope and are afraid.

We all are control freaks to one degree or another. We like to be in control of our life and the things around us that have some bearing or influence in our life. If we were driving down the road and the steering on our car suddenly quit working and we had zero control we would freak out for sure. Right now there is a whole lot in our life that a month ago we were in control of, that is now outside of our control, and people are freaking out. We really never had as much control of our life and circumstances in our life as we thought, it was an illusion that was brought about by life being normal and predictable. During normal life we do a very poor job of trusting in the Lord, depending on Him, seeking Him, and serving Him, because we think we have things under control. Now, all of a sudden the steering wheel has come loose in our life and panic sets in. A great way to start every day is with a declaration or commitment to the Lord that we are going to trust Him, follow Him, love Him, and serve Him. I am starting my morning prayer now with a confession to the Lord of pride and self sufficiency revealed by my chaffing under the restraints put on me, our ministry and our church by others. I don’t like the government telling me what I can and can’t do, and I am writing that statement with a great deal of restraint. So as I begin each day declaring my love and devotion to the Lord, asking Him for joy, peace, strength, and wisdom, I also confess my pride to him in always wanting to do things my way. As I ask for His strength each morning I include in that prayer a request for patience, a quite spirit, contentment with what I can’t control, and always I ask for many opportunities to be a witness for Jesus to those who have no hope and are afraid.

The primary goal of life from God’s perspective is for each of us to grow in character to be as much like Jesus as is possible so that when we get to heaven He will enjoy us, and we will enjoy Him. God created us for the purpose of being with Him, to be part of His family, to fellowship, and to enjoy each other to the maximum. I enjoy people who are like me. Babies are cute, but I don’t take them fishing. Character is not created by God in us, it is developed in us over time, and we must cooperate with the process in order for character growth to take place. Character growth takes place in trials and hard times, so now is a time to grow rapidly, and I intend to take full advantage of present circumstances to grow as rapidly as possible.

James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Hebrews 6:1 let us press on to maturity,

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Those who are serious about growing rapidly in character know that times like now produce the most rapid growth possible, but only if we respond correctly, otherwise it does just the opposite and causes and results in significant character flaws.

Weak character doesn’t like rapid change. We like time to adjust to change so we can be secure and comfortable. Now change is happening almost daily, and those with weak character panic, fear, make poor decisions, talk way to much, and react selfishly. So I am going to choose to pray a lot and ask God for joy, peace, strength, and wisdom. I am going to choose not to enter into negative conversations about the present situation and future fears. I am going to choose to be joyful always, not in a “head in the sand way”, but in a way that communicates faith in God. I will remind myself at least daily that life is designed by God to be hard, full of trials, and extremely difficult, and heaven is wonderful beyond comprehension. Those who will enjoy heaven the most are those who enter into glory with the character of Christ.

So many people believe that because God loves us He will keep us from hard times in this life. The truth is God knows this life is a blink of an eye in length and then we will be in eternity. We need to “set our minds on the things above, not on the things of this earth”. We need to anticipate and expect hard times and grow through them.