We can choose what we think about just as we can choose what we talk about. The Bible calls that choosing “mind set”. One of the admonitions in the Bible is to choose to set our mind on the things above instead of the things of this earth. I have been exercising great self discipline lately to spend a lot of time doing that, thinking about heaven. I have found that as I think actively about heaven, what it will look like, feel like, the joy, the freedom from all evil and bad, the stunning beauty, the presence of God that I have become increasingly more positive and happy and I have myself realizing that not much really matters that much in light of going to heaven. Anything that happens in life is temporary and soon will be over and then I will be in heaven forever. I have also become more and more grateful for my salvation knowing that I did nothing to earn my position in heaven forever, it was given to me as a gift because of my faith as a result of what Jesus sacrificed on the cross. I am incomprehensibly blessed. I will spend the remaining years of my life communicating to others about this amazing gift of heaven forever received by faith.

I got to speak in a class at Corban University today. There were 12 students all who were planning on going into full time ministry, most of them are planning on being pastors. As I was talking to them about the challenges of being a pastor I got to thinking while I was talking, about how young these kids were. Once upon a time I was that age and was so full of dreams and ideas about how everything ought to be done. I talked for 45 minutes and offered to put them in my prayer journal and pray for them faithfully once each week as long as they would regularly send me info on how they were doing in school and in pursuit of their goal of being in ministry. I have grown so much in my confidence that I make a huge difference in the lives of people by praying for them that I don’t hesitate to offer to pray for people, even people I don’t know and may never see again this side of heaven. “If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, ask whatever you desire and it will be given you”. I have so much power and authority and influence with God for people it would be a shame to be to busy not to spend much time in prayer.

I asked a friend if he would haul some gravel for me. He said, “I won’t get stuck, will I?”I said, “Oh no, the ground is all river rock. Well he got stuck. We kept putting gravel under his wheels and finally we got him unstuck. That little chore of getting his big dump truck unstuck is what you call an unplanned interruption to our plans. They happen at a fairly regular interval. One of the very real indicators of spiritual maturity is how we respond to these unplanned and annoying interruptions to our plans. Mature people know these interruptions are part of life. They understand and believe that God is in charge all the time. God is sovereign. God causes things to happen to us that will promote spiritual growth in us if we respond in trust. The requirement of God for these events to cause spiritual growth is that we would rejoice and not grumble. Grumbling is what everyone around us does so we will have to work hard to not let the world influence us. These unplanned interruptions can become an adventure and a challenge that needs solved if we handle them correctly or they can be major joy stealers if we let them. Every morning I say, “today there will be some inconviences and some of them will be major, I choose now before they happen to not let them control my life. I will be a winner today.

I have observed that I have a self control gas tank. In the morning when I get up it is full and my ability to exercise self control is relatively easy. As I go through the day exercising self control over what I say to people, my use of time, the speed at which I work, taking my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, controlling my eating, exercising, my gas tank goes empty and then in the evening as I sit in my chair I eat to much, I have thoughts of irritation as I think back on the day, I bark at my wife, I stay up to late doing research on my iPad about how to get rich raising fish, and then in the morning I confess to God my poor use of time and bad attitudes and then that evening I do it all over again. Sheesh. I think if someone came along in the evening and tried to sell me a new fishing rod I would buy it even with the dozen or so that I already own! I am making a goal and commitment to all of you that I will be in bed no later than 11 pm. That is when the empty gas tank of self control really starts to show itself. Ask me how I am doing. It is now 11:09. I am going to bed. Love you all. Dee

Today is the 12th and my taxes are supposed to be mailed in 3 days and I haven’t started yet. I have a goal to exercise 90 minutes each day. I didn’t exercise at all yesterday and I am sitting in my chair this evening telling myself I am going to get up and do it any minute now, but still I sit. I don’t think anything makes me more disgusted with myself than putting off unpleasant tasks when I know they need to get done. My desire is that I would be strong, that I would do what is right, what is responsible, what is important, and not allow my own flesh to control me. I have stretches where everything clicks and I am in a groove doing everything that I want in a timely way. But then for some reason I will get tired, discouraged, depressed and then I lapse into “nothingness”!Then I work at getting back into the groove, I finally get there and then I relapse again. I do know that the down times are way shorter than they used to be and the length of time between the relapses is getting longer. Change and growth is slow and gradual. I will persevere asking the Lord for His strength everyday, and I will press on to maturity.

In John chapter 10 it says that Jesus is the good shepherd, and that He cares for us and knows our name. I work at knowing the name of every person who has started attending JBC, but I often forget. In fact sometimes I forget that I have even talked to them at all. I don’t think I impress them much. Jesus knows my name and He knows me intimately.

We rented a dumpster and filled it up today with junk. We got one last year and filled it up as well. I will rent one next year and probably fill it up. It is a big dumpster. Where does all that junk come from. Almost all of it is stuff we bought in the past and it quiT working or broke. The word junk is a good discription of what we are filling up the dumpser with. As I was taking a break from filling up the dumpster I thought about the word junk. The stuff we were throwing into the dumpster we bought at one point with no thought of it becoming junk someday. Why had it become junk? junk, stuff that is worthless, of no use, broken, discarded. I am not junk and I never will be. God considers me worth a lot and He loves me and He will for all of eternity. I will not become useless to Him, or broken or simply unwanted.

I want to set up a little “nursery group” of fishes so I can have baby Tilapia to replace the ones we eat. According to the instructions I have, 5 female fish and one male fish in a 55 gallon aquarium is the perfect scenario for having lots of new baby fish. Well I set this up a couple of weeks ago and still no babies so I rechecked and discovered that I had 6 male fish, won’t work that way, no babies. So I went back to the big tank and pumped most of the water out and netted and checked, netted and checked, whooooeeee it is not an easy thing “sexing” fish. So I think I have it right this time. If no babies have arrived in a couple of weeks I will check again. One thing about it as the fish get bigger it is easier to see the difference. One of the problems is that they wiggle around so much it is really hard to see!! One of the things that tipped me off besides no babies is that the six fish were fighting all the time and that wasn’t supposed to happen with 5 female fish and one male, there was supposed to be a lot of loving!! I had an appointment at my office I was late for so I quickly left and once there I remembered that I had left the water running in the big tank of fish. Tilapia don’t live long in water colder than 60 degrees and our well water is a shade over 50 degrees, yikes I was going to kill all my fish!! I called home and got Sherri to shut off the water. Whooeee that was close! 15 minutes later I remembered that I had forgotten to shut off the valve that drained water out of the tank. Oh no, my fish were probably gasping flopping around with no water. I was going to kill them for sure. Called home again and explained where the valve was and how to shut it off. When I got home I was so relieved to see all my fish swimming around in 6 inches of water doing quite well.

God appeared to Solomon and asked him what he wanted God to do for him. If God woke me up and asked that question what would I say? If He woke you up and asked that question what would you say? When Jesus asked the blind man what he wanted Jesus to do for him, he didn’t hesitate, “I want to regain my sight” and Jesus responded that his faith was great. What do I want?, really want! The intensity of my wanting, the size of my wanting, the focus and clarity of my wanting determines what I accomplish with my life. The person that wants the most prays the most, the person who wants the most works the hardest, the person who wants the most sacrifices the most, the person who wants the most gives the most, the person who wants the most thinks and plans with great intensity. But if you want a lot you do experience disappointment more than the person who wants and hopes for very little. Disappointment is painful so many down size their wants to avoid disappointment to the point that become totally content with mediocrity and little accomplishment.

I got invited to speak at a Parkinson’s support group today and tell them my story of bicycling across the U.S. I started my presentation by saying, “I hate riding a bicycle”. That got their attention. I went on to say that the only reason I ride is because I want the next 10 years of my life and ministry to be more productive than the first 35 all put together. The only way I will be able to last is by exercising a lot. It is that desire that motivates me to get up out of my chair in the evenings when I am super tired and have already got stiff and the last thing I want to do is get up and ride my stationary bike. So I keep that dream and desire in front of me all day long and the more I meditate on it the more motivated I become. It is sort of like throwing gas on the fire. I am becoming an expert at motivating myself which is self leadership. One fine teacher on leadership said that no one can lead others until he first learns to lead himslf.