Went to the movie “Unbroken” tonight. I had read the book last year and it was an amazingly good book.  It is a true story about an American who was a Olympic star as a long distance runner, who went into the Second World War as a bombardier, crashed at sea, was in a rubber raft for 47 days, rescued and captured by the Japanese and then was tortured and treated very inhumanly for over 3 years as a prisoner of war in Japan. It is a very good movie about a man who is incredibly strong in heart and will. In the book, but not in the movie, he comes home from the war and becomes an alcoholic and is close to ruining his life and marriage when he goes to a Biily Graham revival and trusts Jesus as his savior. He goes home and pours all his liquor down the drain and becomes a completely new person. He goes back to Japan and forgives all those who tortured him. I highly recommend the movie. It will make you feel really good.  Louis Zampareni died a few months ago at 97 years of age. A true tough guy.

Nice time today celebrating Christmas with a bunch of family here. Ate a lot and then ate some more. Opened presents and that is so much fun watching the grandkids get all excited. The boys all got Leggo’s, that was easy. The kids got together and bought me a present. A fish cleaning table to put in my greenhouse where I will be raising my Tilapia as part of my aquaponics system. I was planning on cleaning them in Patty’s kitchen on the counter top next to the sink where I have always cleaned fish. I think maybe my present was really Patty’s present, she seemed very happy with it😄 . Being a pastor we have never made very much money, and with this Parkinson’s thing and other issues my health is a constant nuisance, but I consider myself incredibly blessed by the Lord because of my family. I would never trade wealth or good health or anything else for my experience today for half a day with my family.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve service tonight at JBC. Short and simple, worship, special music, reading of Christmas Story from Isaiah and Luke, and communion. It was nice for me to have Pastor Mike running the service tonight so I got to sit with everyone else and enjoy the evening. It was easy to reflect during the service about what Jesus did for me in leaving heaven, becoming a person like me, dying for my sins and giving me eternal life with Him.  He must love me a lot. Certain truths need to be thought about over and over a over again to move it from mere intellectual ascent to a deeply felt conviction that is very real in the deepest part of our heart. The birth, life, and death of Jesus is one of those truths that has potential to create a great sense of self worth, security, and confidence as we live life if it is truly grasped and grafted into our heart.

I think that my Dad’s greatest influence in my life is teaching me to work hard and to enjoy accomplishing something significant from that work. I am always thinking about how to get more done in the same amount of time than I did yesterday. Working energetically and strategically with a clear goal in mind is about the most enjoyable thing there is in life for me. Today I got the priviledge of having my 9 year old grandson Isaac work with me. We dug a ditch across our driveway in order to lay a water line in it to get water to my new greenhouse and aquaponics set up. It was packed gravel and was a very difficult job. I wanted him to work hard and not goof off, but still have a good time. He kept right up with me. The main difference was that I panted and groaned a lot and he talked a lot asking lots of questions about everything we did. I am not sure if he had a lot of fun, but I sure did.

Went to the new Hobit movie with grandkids, son, and son in law, and wife this afternoon. I think that the ugly Orky guys are a picture of the devil and demons and the general message of the movie is that we do much better fighting against them when we fight together against the enemy rather than against each other. Lots of other character messages in the movie as well. I ate a whole barrel of pop corn I got so energized and into all the sword fights.

It has rained so much in the last couple of days! I wouldn’t say that I love the rain, but I don’t mind it. It is a mind set sort of thing. It is winter and rain is what happens in winter. It won’t be that long and we will be back to 80 degree days. Life is a series of cycles, and if you don’t like one cycle just wait and the next cycle  will be here, and it is best if you do something worthwhile while you wait. I am waiting for Jesus to come and to usher in His Kingdom which will be incomprehensibly wonderful, and I will get a brand new glorified body. I don’t know how long it will be, I might die first and enter through that door, doesn’t really matter much. I am waiting with great eagerness, and while I wait I will make the most of present opportunities, and I won’t fuss about the rain.

One of my character goals is to grow to a point that I have great self control over my thoughts and self talk and ultimately my feelings when a circumstance occurs in my life that I can’t control and that blocks a goal or desire that I have. Normally when that happens I feel very frustrated even angry. I am almost always in a hurry to accomplish my goals, and a roadblock or anything that slows me down causes great frustration. I want to be able to think automatically how God is in control and He knows what He is doing and that He loves me so relax and trust Him. I am building a Aquaponics  system in the greenhouse I just built. I took a hot water heater element and made a heater for the 300 gallon tank that I have to raise fish in and wired it up using a nice digital heat controller. I didn’t seal it good enough and water leaked in and short circuited the controller and burnt it up. That messed up my schedule because my fish are coming in a couple of days and the controller cost me $49.50. My response was ” oh well, I bet I don’t make that mistake again”, thank You Lord for the wisdom gained!”. Afterwards as I thought about it I said, “Thank You Lord, for helping me to become a totally trusting and patient man”. More to come, I am sure!

We had a family Christmas party plus a bunch of friends as well with about 23 people here. Sang songs, prayed, had a communion service, played bunko and had a white elephant gift exchange plus ate a bunch of snacks. As I enjoyed he evening I thought, I wonder how much partying like this will happen when we get to heaven? I bet there will be a bunch because it seems that Heaven is more about relationships than anything else. Heaven will be a wonderful place because the curse is gone and I will have a glorified body that will be perfect. But the best part is that there will be no wars, big ones or little ones between friends. Relationships will be everything in heaven.

one week until Christmas. Funny how Christmas has changed. When I was a kid I thought mostly about what I was going to get for gifts. Then it was all about our kids and trying to decide what they would really like. Patty and I would spend hours and hours walking up and down store aisles trying to decide on the perfect gifts for each of our eight kids. Now it is the 21 grandkids that consume most of our thinking. I enjoy giving to my kids and grandkids. There is a special joy that comes from seeing their eyes light up when they open their present, and you know that you got it right this time anyway.

God gave to us the perfect gift, His son Jesus because He loves us. I wonder how much He enjoys seeing us receive His gift to us with gratitude.

Got my Russel dog back today. I had given him away a couple months ago because he was a bit difficult when Sherri and Thomas moved in with their little boy courage. The family I gave him to gave him back today because he was a bit difficult for them. I am really happy to have my dog back. He is a super hyper dog that is a nuisance, barks, bites, and kills Patty’s chickens, but I like him, and I think I will keep him.

Kind of reminds me of my relationship with the Lord. I am a bit difficult, I do a lot of things wrong, but the Lord loves me ,and He promises to keep me.