Problems are part of life. God created the world and life to be full of problems. Problems need to be solved,conquered, and overcome. You never let problems get to you, whip you, and you for sure never whine about them. With the $130,000 that came in this weekend in our special offering for the completion of our new education building we were all ready to wrap up this building stuff and get a bunch done this week, but the State of Oregon decided to get involved and created some major problems as we worked to get our water system switched over to this new building. It was so tempting to bad mouth the government, that is the National pastime after all, but our builder/maintenance staff guy Chris went to work on the problem, and solved it. It is sort of like a boxing match, or a football game, or a playoff basketball game, you can whine about the refing but a better choice is to play hard and win. Not much makes life more fun than some great competition from a tough opponent.

One of the coolest things about our “Special Offering” taken this weekend resulting in $122,000 to complete our new “Discipleship Center” was that the Jefferson Evangelical Church under the leadership of Pastor Rob Nelke took an offering and gave it to us as part of our offering. Pastor Rob knew this was important that we get enough to finish before June 23rd so they decided to help us. What a great expression of unity in the body of Christ. Thank you brother Rob and those at the Evangelical Church. You are wonderful!!

All day long I kept thinking about yesterday’s “Special offering” and the $122,000 that was given. I must have said “Thank You Lord” out loud and in my thoughts 10,000 times. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous about the special offering. We had just done our Missions Offering in February and it was really good so I wasn’t sure there was much extra money left to give. Our building permit runs out June 23rd and I wasn’t sure what we were going to do if we didn’t get enough money in the offering to finish. I refused to think about it thinking that I would solve that problem if I had to, but I wasn’t going spend time and mental energy trying to solve a problem we might not have, and praise the Lord, we don’t!!! God is do good, and I am so happy!thank You, Thank You, Thank You…………….

Today Jefferson Baptist Church had a “Special Offering” to raise money to finish our new education building that we are calling the “Discipleship Center”. People have been praying asking God for miracles and extra funds and He has been providing in a variety of ways. It has been fun hearing the various stories about how extra money has come in and the joy of giving it to God’s work at JBC. $122,000 came in this weekend which will be more than enough to complete the building project. Since 1977 JBC has had a “Special Offering” every year and it is so fun to see God work and people sacrifice and give cheerfully. The Bible teaches that it is more blessed to give than recieve and that has certainly proved to be true. It was a very good day and I am very thankful to be part of what God is doing in our church.

Time management is simple. Work twice as fast and you will get twice as much done in the same amount of time thereby managing your time well. Many people when they take time management courses or seminars and read books on the topic are looking for an easy and comfortable way to get a lot done, there is none. One book I read said it this way, “time management is not really about time, it is about energy”. For me time management is all about discovering those practices and disciplines that God promises to bless with his strength and energy. When I have His strength I can then work hard and get much more done with my life. One of those is in 1 Timothy 1:12 where Paul said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful”. Be a faithful man and God will give His supernatural strength to you. There are a dozen other promises like that with different conditions set as the requirement for God’s power to be given. I know them all well and I review, remind, and meditate on them almost daily to be sure I am faithfully practicing them.

The book of Provers has over 50 warnings about being careless and undisciplined in our speech. A major message in many of the warnings is that we do what we speak out of our mouth, our words are self fulfilling prophecy. I work hard at only speaking words that I want to be true or reality in my life, and not saying words that I don’t want to be true of me. That should eliminate most grumbling from my life. An example is I made a personal commitment to not say I am tired though one of the consequences of Parkinsons is “tiredness that is in every cell of the body” most of the time. If I say I am tired I will become more tired, but if I say “it is so fulfilling to be given so much to do by God that I am in need of a good nights sleep so I can do a bunch of work again tomorrow for Him.” The positivenessess of that statement makes me feel good, and I then hardly notice the tiredness. People often do themselves in with their own careless whiny speech.

I can do all the right things with all the wrong motives! That is bad, but even worse is, “I can do all the right things with all the wrong motives and not even be aware of it”. A major wrong motive for me is to do things to be noticed and appreciated by people. In the New Testament in Matthew 6:1 it says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven”. A gauge I use to help me see my blind spot of being unaware that my motive has subtly moved from wanting to please God to pleasing people, is hurt feelings. When I get my feelings hurt by someone who isn’t appreciative, doesn’t notice me, doesn’t value me, takes me for granted it is like a blinking ” check engine” light on the dashboard of our relatively new car, except now it is a “check motive” light on the dashboard of my soul. At the point of feeling bad because of what someone said or did I pray to myself, “Lord, my desire is to please You and glorify you, not myself.

Well, the Portland Trail Blazers are done. Out of the play offs in the first round in 5 games. At the start of the season I was sure they were going to go all the way to at least the quarter finals if not to the championship game. Watching the game tonight they seemed tired and unmotivated, like they had already given up. It is tough being a fan. There is absolutely nothing you can do or contribute. Just be a loyal spectator. Being an uninvolved spectator is really unfulfilling. It is so nice that the Almighty God of the Universe has included us in His plans of seeking and saving the lost and making disciples. He could easily do it all but He wants us to be His servants, His partners in accomplishing His will. I am part of the family of God, I am a disciple of Jesus, I am part of the Body of Christ, I am a member of the Bride of Christ, I am a brother of Jesus, I am a temple of the Holy Spirit. In God’s view I am quite significant. I am choosing to be fully involved, faithful, responsible, diligent, and hot in doing my part as a member on God’s team.

Today in our culture it doesn’t seem important to many to absolutely keep their word. Many will say they are going to do something and do not do it. If confronted the stock answer is “I forgot”. If I tell someone I am going to do something, and then do not do it I am so ashamed I can hardly stand it. A faithful man is one who makes commitments and keeps them. God uses a faithful man. God gives a faithful man authority and puts him in charge of more and more. God gives a faithful man strength to be even more faithful. Part of the problem is that many tend to work at being a person of integrity only when it is important, but when we are slack with little things the character that results will also be slack when it is super important. Jesus put it this way in a parable in Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he who is unfaithful in a very little thing is unfaithful also in much”. I want to give those who follow me security by being a person of integrity and faithfulness. My security is based on God’s promise that if I believe in the Lord Jesus I will live forever in heaven with Him. I don’t have to worry that God will change His mind, He is faithful.

Had an appointment today with a Pneurologist at the Parkinson’s center at OHSU. Very nice doctor who asked a lot of questions about how I was doing. Changed my medication a little bit, but mostly just keeping on doing what I am doing. My exercising is doing a lot of good keeping the Parkinson’s from progressing very fast. I am planning on increasing the amount of time each day that I exercise. My goal is 10 hours each week, but I have only been getting in about 7 for the last couple of months. Exercising is the hardest of all my disciplines to be faithful to. The key to success at it is to remind myself constantly of the health benefits and the joy of being able to continue pastoring. The other disciplines in my life have even greater benefits, reading my Bible every day, memorizing Bible verses and meditating on them every day, spending time with God in prayer everyday, taking time to reflect, examining my life every day for character flaws and weaknesses and sins and confessing them to God. I own those sins before God not blaming others, making excuses, justifying, or simply ignoring them. My flesh hates the basic disciplines of the Christian life, but I have motivated myself to be faithful to them by writing out all the benefits and blessings that come from God for being faithful to do them.