Tonight, in our Wednesday night service, I preached on Wisdom. Here are some key statements that I made about wisdom.

• God is infinitely wise and gives His wisdom to those seeking it. The harder we seek it, the more He gives.
• There are few wise people; Solomon said one in one thousand.
• Wisdom is knowing what to do and say in any situation.
• Our choices, actions, and words are like seeds we plant; they will all yield a crop. Good choices bring good results, and bad choices bring bad consequences.
• Wisdom is knowing what the crop will be before we plant the seed and being careful only to plant those seeds that will bring a good crop.
• The greatest barrier to wisdom is pride. We think we know it all already, so we don’t seek it.
• If we make bad choices and end up in dire circumstances because of our lack of wisdom, God will not bail us out, no matter how much we pray.
• We get wisdom by seeking counsel and advice from wise people. Prideful people don’t ask.
• Wise people learn from their mistakes; they don’t blame others for the consequences they experience from their poor choices.
• Wise people are readers. They seek wisdom from those who have been successful and have written about it.
• The Bible is the most significant source of wisdom; wise people read it extensively.
• Wise people have healthy relationships, are financially secure, and bear much fruit for God.
• Wisdom is the key to being a good leader.
• Wise people are kind and speak graciously to others.

When I was a kid, roller skating was very popular, and there were many roller skating rinks. Even as a young adult, it was still popular. When we first started as a church, we used to have a roller skating party every month that had five Sundays. We had a Sunday night service back then and would cancel it for roller skating. Everyone was encouraged to invite friends to skate with us. It was a reasonably successful tool for reaching people. When we went to Vietnam on short-term mission trips, the traffic in Saigon and Hanoi reminded me of roller skating. In roller skating and Vietnamese traffic, everyone weaves in and out among each other. There was no system or reason for why people drove where they did. The main rule was to keep track of the traffic in front of you and to dodge and weave as needed to keep from running into someone in front of you. You weren’t responsible for the ones behind you; they were. That is how it was with roller skating: keep track of the people in front of you. The system worked pretty well in Vietnam and roller skating. I live life like that. Romans 12:18 says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” To be at peace with all men means don’t run into them and avoid wrecks.
People in my life are all different. Some people are very temperamental; they get offended easily. Some are very argumentative; they will debate and argue about anything at the drop of a hat. Some people are Democrats, some are Republicans, some are Beaver fans, and some are Duck fans. Some people are bold and outgoing, and others are shy and introverted. The goal is to maneuver through life without offending anyone, hurting anyone’s feelings, or getting into a heated political argument. It isn’t easy, but you can have mostly peaceful and unified days if you pay attention. For me, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things that I am willing to defend or speak up about, but I make sure it is worth it and not simply about winning. I also work hard at communicating in a gracious and honoring way that maintains people’s dignity. I used to have roller skating wrecks, which were not fun, but the more I skated, the fewer wrecks I would have. Most of my bad wrecks were when I was showing off and trying to look cool on my skates. Healthy relationships are worth working at, and making concessions for. Dodge and weave, wrecks are not fun.

In 1989, I attended the first “Pastor’s Prayer Summit.” It significantly impacted my life and changed me in a way that changed everything in my life. It changed my Pastoring, my relationship with my wife, my parenting, and all my relationships. The commitments and goals that I made at the first summit tend to weaken throughout the year, and then I remake them the following year at the summit. It is now 2025, and I have been at every summit except the one canceled for COVID. Today was the first day of this year’s “Pastor’s Prayer Summit,” and I already have been majorly convicted about my lack of devotion to prayer, and I have repented and remade my goals. I knew it would happen because it does every time I come. I don’t feel bad because I am not doing what I should be; I feel bad because I realize the power of prayer to bless other people and change them to be more devoted to God. I am in the business of changing people, and I know that God uses my preaching, teaching, counseling, and mentoring activities. Still, my praying for people magnifies what I do beyond comprehension. But I get so busy doing my thing that I begin to spend less and less time praying to God for people. When I recommit myself to intercessory prayer, I say to myself and God, “I won’t let that happen again!” But I have said that every year. I will probably slip in my prayer devotion again this year, but I will return next year to the Summit and get recommitted. The biggest weakness many people have is not fully comprehending how important other people are in keeping us going in the right direction. Fortunately, I have found numerous events like the “Pastor’s Prayer Summit” to light my fire.

While we were in Hawaii visiting our family, I got to go to the island of Molokai with a friend and hunt for axis deer. They are smaller than our Oregon blacktail deer, but not much. Molokai is about 260 square miles, approximately 10 miles wide, and 30 miles long. It is relatively dry compared to Oahu, which is only 60 miles away. There are 7,000 people and 70,000 axis deer on the island. That is a lot of deer per square mile. We hunted for two days using a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle and killed five deer. We rented a car and a condo while there, and the apartment had a freezer to freeze the meat we harvested. I own insulated freezer bags that hold 50 lbs of frozen meat and can be checked on the airplane. I use the same bags when I go fishing in Alaska. The meat stays frozen all the way home in the bags and has handles, making them easy to carry. I can have two free fish or meat container bags on Alaska Airlines. The meat is delicious and very tender. I killed my first deer when I was 12 and have hunted all my life since then. I enjoy hunting a bit less than fishing now, though when I was younger, in better shape, and more agile, I think I enjoyed hunting more. When I die, I have instructed Patty to put Genesis 10:9 on my headstone; “He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Though I don’t want her to put John 21:3 on my headstone, “ They fished all night and caught nothing.” I read a book that said, “Because our great ancestors hunted and fished for their survival, it is in our DNA and therefore easy to get addicted to and to get great pleasure from. I am addicted to hunting and fishing and enjoy both activities immensely.
There is not much in this blog of spiritual value, though I did quote two Bible verses. Many of you asked about our trip to Oahu; it was super.

During the “Five Days of Prayer,” we interviewed a number of missionaries whom we support via Zoom. It was cool to see the faces and hear the voices of missionaries thousands of miles away, like they were in the room with us. After they told us what they were doing and we asked various questions, we spent time praying for them as they were still connected to us via Zoom. It was an incredible time of feeling connected to them and as partners with them in Bolivia, West Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, and China.

Partnerships are great. I was a partner with my Dad on our dairy for a while. I am a partner with Patty, and we have accomplished a lot together. Those who are part of a church family are partners with each other. What is really amazing is that we are now partners with Jesus, doing His work in the world together.

Partnerships provide encouragement to each partner from the others, they provide an opportunity for rest while the other partners carry our load for a while, they provide creative thinking as ideas are shared, and best of all, the separation of responsibilities allows for each partner to focus on the part of the whole endeavor that he does best.

The Trinity is a partnership. We were created for partnerships with God and each other. One of the most potent things about partnerships is praying for each other. The emphasis in the New Testament is praying for each other rather than ourselves. When we do intercede for our partners, God works powerfully. Intercessory prayer is a very strong glue that holds partners close with beautiful unity, even when the partners are separated by many miles.

Praying as partners works supernaturally well in churches, marriages, and families. It is sad to see so many who neglect this amazing power. One of the rules of partnerships is that when we pray little for others, the others pray little for us. That is not a conscious thing, it is a result that God orchestrates.

This week is the “Five Days of Prayer” at JBC, and Monday will begin the three-day “Pastor’s Prayer Summit” at Cannon Beach. Whooooeeeeee, that is going to be a lot of prayer. I should grow a bunch if I focus and don’t just daydream and stare out the window, where we will be praying into the ocean, wishing I was fishing.

It is an everyday, all-day discipline to control my thoughts. I have so many selfish, worldly, fleshly, and demonic thoughts pop into my head, one after the other. If I don’t jump on them quickly and kick them out, they will burrow down and make themselves right at home. The times that I am most successful in this discipline are during corporate prayer times. The agenda is set, and I am not continually bombarded by visual images that prompt my brain to go where it shouldn’t. Even the ocean I stare at out the window during prayer prompts thoughts of God and His glory. Corporate prayer events and times are times of rest from the constant battle for control over my mind, and it is easier to get it all cleaned up.

In Alaska, there is a river called the Susitna. It is a long river running north to South. It starts at the base of Mt Denali and dumps into Cook Inlet just East of Anchorage at its end. It is almost always filled with volcanic silt, making the water look grey. There are a lot of salmon of different species that run up that river. A small creek or river which is very clear flows into the Susitna River every ten miles or so. The salmon swing into the mouth of those creeks and hang out for a couple of days to clear their gills of the silt, then back into the big river headed for their spawning grounds. Those creeks just up from the main river are a good place to fish because they are packed with resting salmon. That is a picture of me at corporate prayer times, cleaning out my gills.

In February of 1989, I went to the first four-day Pastor’s Prayer Summit held at Cannon Beach. The event produced a huge life change in me regarding my prayer life, but equally impactful at that time were the ten books I read in the next six months of my life on prayer. The Biography of George Mueller was the first, “Why Revival Tarries” by Leanord Ravenhill, the biography of John Knox, Charles Spurgeon on Prayer, the biography of David Brainard, and five books on prayer by EM Bounds. The bottom line in those books was that a pastor who didn’t pray for his church people at least three hours a day was a hireling. The main point of all of those books was that the weakness in most pastors’ prayer life was simply time. God wants our time, and if we don’t give Him much time, we won’t experience much blessing. Out of that came my life and church motto, “Much Prayer = Much Blessing. Little Prayer = Little Blessing. No Prayer = No Blessing. I was into convenient prayer, comfortable prayer, quick prayer, on-the-fly prayer, and a little prayer, and the number of blessings I was receiving from God was in line with what I was giving Him.
My life has changed a bunch since that first prayer summit and God has blessed our church and my life as a result. JBC is halfway through our winter “Five Days of Prayer” for our Missions ministry. I am praying seven of the ten hours each day. I used to pray ten hours daily, but I am getting wimpy in my old age. Even the six to seven hours now takes a lot of positive self-talk to accomplish. The key requirement is faith in the power of prayer and a powerful desire to see God work and lives changed.

We got home from Oahu, Hawaii, at about 1:00 am this morning. It was an incredible 10 days of relaxing, hunting, and hanging out with our kids and grandkids. The only bad thing is having to leave. Lazarus died and then was brought back to life by Jesus. I assume he was in Paradise and then got jerked back to this life; that must have been a bummer. If that had happened in our day, he would have written a book about his experiences and made a bunch of money. Hawai’i was amazing but not even close to what heaven will be like. I am unsure if it was the walking I did while hunting, the sitting in the airport and on the airplane, or the strange bed, but I came home with a painful hip. It hurts like the dickens, and I can hardly walk. I don’t know if it is my hip or my sciatica from my back, but whatever, it is excruciating. So now I am rejoicing because of the wonderful trip and the bum hip. It is easier to rejoice about the trip than the hip, but that is what I need to do.

We can rejoice about the past, the present, and the future. I have many wonderful memories of past events, blessings, and experiences, and I often reminisce about those memories now, and I get great joy from them. I often think of the future with my glorified body being with Jesus, trying to imagine what that will be like. I rejoice about the present because Jesus calls me to do that, and occasionally, I rejoice because I am in Hawaii, but most often, I am not in Hawaii, and I am in pain. Oh well, I am getting older, and heaven is getting closer. I have so many great memories of the past, so rejoicing always, even with a bum hip, is a piece of cake.

Psalms 9:1-2 I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart;
I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
The most often given commandment in the Bible is to thank the Lord, praise Him, worship Him, and glorify Him for everything. While we are here in Oahu enjoying the weather, the beaches, our family, and the beauty, it is easy to take it all for granted and forget to say thank you repeatedly. I have been trying hard to say thank You, Lord, all day long. We are having such a good time with all the grandkids, the times of fellowship, and the enjoyment of God’s creation.
But I have an even harder time saying thank You and rejoicing when things are bad and everything is falling apart. Rejoicing is as essential for me when life is hard as it is in good times. When you are on the beach in Hawaii, it is easy to say thank You, Lord. It is hard to thank the Lord when times are hard.
James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. It would certainly be an act of obedience of our will rather than from our emotions to say thank You if something terrible happened to one of our kids or grandkids.

Patty and I are in Hawaii on the Island of Oahu with two of our kids and their families and are having a wonderful time. It is presently 79 degrees and very comfortable. Everyone except me went to church yesterday and had a great time worshiping together and being blessed by good preaching. I felt a bit under the weather from the plane flight, but I’m good now. We all went to the beach yesterday, and the kids swam and surfed. Patty and I sat in lawn chairs and watched. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable time for us.
Being here makes me think about heaven as an enjoyable place where everything is good and perfect. Even Hawaii has many negatives, mostly all the people, traffic, and crowds. Even the beach isn’t perfect, as a couple of young people died from drowning the day we got here.
One of the cool things about heaven is that we don’t have to worry about whether we will make it. If we believe and confess that Jesus is God and that He died for us and paid for our sins, we are born again and have eternal life. If we die or He comes first, we will receive a body like His. The older I get, the more of a pain my body is and the more I am looking forward to my new one. I watched a lot of football on Saturday and Sunday, and tonight I will watch the College National Championship game. Watching those guys run, throw, catch, and block is impressive, especially how well their bodies function. Someday, I will have a body even better than theirs.