The Bible talks about people who have a good and a clear conscience. It also talks about those who have a seared conscience, and a bad conscience, and a defiled conscience. Sometimes we will talk about people who are bad and say they must have some good in them someplace. It is our conscience that has checks against evil behavior and inclinations toward good behavior. when we hear about people murdering woman, children, and babies in the news I wonder how a person gets to the point that their conscience is dead, and then becomes evil. When we are “born again” by our faith in Jesus Christ our conscience is made new with a bent towards righteousness.

Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

There are also those whose conscience becomes “defiled” and is controlled by demons, who are totally evil in their intentions and desires. That is a sad state for a person to get to in this life, but many do, and it looks like the number is increasing in our world today.

The Apostle Paul makes an interesting comment about his conscience in Acts 24:16 “In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.”

Paul in Romans 2 suggests that when we read or memorize the Bible that it influences our conscience toward godliness, it programs us, as it were, and in Romans 9 he talks about the Holy Spirit nudging our conscience toward righteousness.

Patty and I went to visit my good friend Andy Keesecker in the hospital this afternoon. He is having some problems with his kidneys and the doctors are trying to figure out what the problem is. It seems that a lot of my friends are having health problems these days. That is probably because most of my friends are my age, and that is what happens when you get my age, the old body just starts wearing out, it is a given. I have two separate doctor visits scheduled in the next couple of days, just routine, every two year checkups, and I have no idea how those will turn out. I am assuming that everything will be cool, and I will live to be 100 years old riding my bicycle until I am 99 years old, but that is not probable.

But it doesn’t really matter because I would much rather be in heaven than here, nothing against all you good people but heaven is better, a glorified body is way better, and Jesus is way, way better. It is so cool to be living life with no fear of dying, no fear of cancer, or any other health issue. I am thinking that with what is going on over in Israel that Jesus is going to be coming any day now.

My main prayer for my sick friends is that God will use them a ton in their sickness as they witness by their joy. I pray that God will fill them with joy, peace, and a very powerful sense of His presence and pleasure in them as His servants.

This last weekend was very full. I preached Saturday morning at “Men’s Breakfast”, I taught my “Men’s Leadership” class from 5:30 to 6:30 pm and then we had our Saturday night service which was the first of three services that were our 50th anniversary celebration in which Patty and I sang and I talked for 30 minutes narrating slides of JBC’s history. Sunday morning at 8:00 am I taught the “Ladies Leadership Class,” then we had two more services where we sang and I talked, then at 1:00 pm I taught another “Men’s Leadership Class,” then at 3:00 pm I taught “Leadership II Class” , and then at 6:00 pm I participated in my “Men’s Covenant” group.

That evening sitting in my recliner I was feeling like the most blessed person on the planet earth. I was feeling full of joy and enthusiasm about the future, and thanking the Lord for the amazing weekend we had just experienced.

I went to bed at 10:00 pm and the next morning I woke up at 10:00 am and I hadn’t woken up once during that 12 hours of sleeping like a baby.

After I got out of bed, showered, ate a bite, drank a cup of coffee and brushed my teeth, I sat down and started thinking about the weekend, and I started thinking, wow, I should be tired, and exhausted, and depressed, and exhausted, and pretty soon I started feeling that way.

Then I came to my senses and, thought, wait a minute, you just had this amazing weekend, and you just had the best nights sleep you have had in years, and you should feel great! Yep, I do feel great!!

Yesterday was Jefferson Baptist Church’s 50th birthday. We had testimonies from a number of people who had been around for most of those years, pictures and video’s of people, events and building projects over the last 50 years, and cake after each of the three services. It was a very emotional time for me as every picture prompted memories of the past and how God has blessed and worked at JBC since we began with 18 people 50 years ago.

God has worked, guided, and blessed my life in my marriage and family, my health, my home and hobbies, but especially in my years of serving Him as the Pastor of JBC. Way back in 1976, my vision was that we might grow to a church of 100 if I worked hard. It is amazing all that He has done here and even more amazing that I got to be a part of this adventure and journey.

Some of you have been wondering why I haven’t written my blog for a couple of days, now you know. I can’t believe I did that! My insurance doesn’t cover water damage, wow these things are expensive! And besides the cost there is getting all the programs on my old, water logged iPad transferred over to my new one and all the passwords that I have to remember, it is a major pain in the buttocks!

I am in the process of growing in the character trait of patience and self-control, whoooeeeeee! But about the time I was getting really irritated I watched a few minutes of what was happening in Israel and to some of the families there and I thought my, oh my, I am amazingly blessed. Thank You Lord for all of Your blessings to me and my family, and please forgive me for failing to be more grateful for my relatively trouble free life.

The Bible is full of conditional promises. That means that God makes a promise to do something if we first do something. He is rewarding right behavior on our part. All good parents do it, and God is certainly a good Father.

One of these conditional promises is in Psalms one that starts right out in verse one with “blessed is the man.” It follows that in verse two and three with we will be like a tree planted by a river yielding lots of fruit, and in everything that we do we will prosper.

What is the condition, or what action on our part is it that God is going to reward? Memorizing and meditating on scripture.

Joshua 1:8 says that if we meditate on God’s Word day and night that we will have success at everything we do.

So God promises that those who meditate on His Word day and night will be prosperous and successful at what they do. In order to meditate on God’s Word we have to memorize it.

Very few people systematically memorize verses from the Bible, why? They don’t believe that the promise is true, a low level of faith in the promises that are in God’s Word.

I spend 30 minutes every day memorizing scripture and reviewing what I have already memorized, and I am going to kick it up to 45 minutes, why? Because I believe the promises of God, and I want what He promises, success at everything that I do.

Memorizing scripture isn’t hard, it just takes time. It is just a matter of going over it again and again until it sticks. Start by picking some verses, putting them on 3×5 cards and reviewing them regularly and often. As you master them add some more to the list. I have about 700 verses memorized well, but I know people who have memorized several thousand verses well.

God is in charge, and He is God. I believe Him and trust Him with all of my heart, so I memorize and meditate because I love being blessed by God with success at all that I put my hand to. Success isn’t a matter of talent, it is an issue of faith and obedience.

There are a lot of different and contradictory teachings on Spiritual gifts in the world wide church today. Here are some of the conclusions that I have come to in my study of Spiritual gifts over the years, and naturally I believe they are correct, though many of the differences between my view and others don’t really make that much difference.

– The church is repeatedly called the “Body of Christ” by the apostle Paul, and the people in the church who are believers each have a Spiritual gift or gifts, and they are a part of the body, either a foot, an ear, an eye, or whatever.

1 Corinthians 12:20-21 But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

– When all of the different body parts are functioning well the body is healthy.

– Often the individual body parts are not functioning, and the result is that the body will be sick or unhealthy, the church will not grow, reach the lost, or make disciples.

Ephesians 4:16 the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

– God decided what our gift would be and gave it to us, we don’t get to pick which one we want. It is our responsibility to discover what our giftedness is.

1 Corinthians 12:18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.

1 Corinthians 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

– Knowing the name of our gift isn’t important, but knowing what we do that seems to be blessed and used of God, empowered by God is what is important.

– I believe that we all are spiritual snowflakes, a unique person created by God to function and serve in a special way that will result in the growth of the body.

– When we are serving in the area of our giftedness we are empowered by the Spirit and we will feel energized and very joyful.

– There is no fast and easy way to discover your giftedness, but those who want to know and serve in the body will discover it.

– Serving, and functioning in the area of our giftedness is the only way to really live, and bear much fruit.

– God made me a teacher, and when I am teaching I sense His pleasure like nothing else I do.

– Everything makes me tired anymore at 75 years of age except for teaching, when I teach I am energized.

Over the years of being the Pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church I have read many books on leadership, I have gone to dozens of seminars on leadership, I have listened to literally 100’s of hours of podcasts on leadership by some of the best leaders in the world, I have been personally mentored by some very good leaders, and I have made more mistakes in leadership than most leaders, and I have tried to learn from those mistakes.

Over the years of making mistakes, getting counsel, reading books and listening to the best leaders in the world on podcasts, I have taken good notes. As I learn, I have written out my own personal book of Proverbs on Leadership, and I call it , “Dee Duke’s Leadership Axioms.”

A few of those axioms;

– The Achilles heal of all leaders is pride. Pride alienates me from those I am leading, and I will quickly lose the blessing of God because of pride.

– Pride is subtle and tricky, it sneaks into my thinking and attitude before I am aware of it, if I am not super diligent to keep guard over my heart and motives.

– Never boss people around and tell them what to do, instead appeal to their conscience.

– Every time I have a conflict with another person take the blame, be the one who is wrong. If I humble myself God will exalt me, but if I exalt myself God will humble me.

– Never say “no.” Don’t be a control freak, Jesus will protect and lead His church.

– in the midst of problems, pressures, and disunity always keep asking, “what will make Jesus happy?”

– God blesses unity not methods.

– When people in the church volunteer, anything they do, no matter how small, is gravy, so praise and appreciate it.

– At least a dozen times a day ask God for wisdom and strength, He gives it to those who ask a lot.

– With people who are leading a ministry or starting to lead a ministry, give them all the advice and training they want, but don’t tell them what to do. It is super easy to start right and only counsel and help, and then to move to being in charge.

– Remember the goal of ministry is to train and motivate people to do the work of the ministry, not to do the work of the ministry.

– People follow a happy and positive leader.

– Success is a good and Biblical word, the problem is when I don’t come up with a definition of success that is Biblical.

– I have to learn how to lead myself well before I can lead others.

– The most powerful tool that I have for self leadership are my personal goals.

I have many other axioms on how to be a “God blessed leader”, join my leadership class if you want the rest.

I did not write this material, I copied part and portions of it from a Fox News article.

“A recent study has shown that men who enjoy fishing as a hobby may have better mental health. The study conducted by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, Ulster University, and Queen’s University in Belfast, found that fishing on a regular basis lowered the risk of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and other mental health problems.

Researchers polled 1,752 males about their fishing activities.

The participants who fished regularly were 17% less likely to experience mental health issues.

While it’s been well-established that fishing has positive benefits for mental health, the new research also highlights that people who engage in the hobby more often yield greater cognitive benefits, noted Dr. Mike Trott, one of the study researchers from the Centre for Mental Health Research at the University of Queensland.”

Wow, I knew fishing was good for me!!

I didn’t write this article. It was on a Fox News report.

Casting a line could reel in a lot more than the catch of the day. A recent study has shown that men who enjoy fishing as a hobby may have better mental health. The study, conducted by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, Ulster University, and Queen’s University, Belfast, found that fishing on a regular basis contributed to a lower risk of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and other mental health conditions. Researchers polled 1,752 males about their fishing activities, as well as other factors including previous mental illness, exercise and overall well-being. The participants who said they fished on a regular basis were nearly 17% less likely to have experienced mental health conditions compared to men who did not fish frequently. The more often the men fished, the better their mental health, according to the study, which was published in the journal epidemiologia this summer. In general, the findings suggest that encouraging frequent participation in recreational angling could be a dual method strategy for promoting relaxation and positive mental health, as well as encouraging increased levels of physical activity in those with mental health issues,” the study’s authors wrote in the journal summary. While it’s been well-established that fishing has positive benefits for mental health, the new research also highlights that people who engage in the hobby more often yield greater cognitive benefits, noted Dr. Mike Trott, one of the study researchers from the Centre for Mental Health Research at the University of Queensland. We were expecting to find that angling in general has positive effects on mental health — however, we did not expect that the more often you fish, the better the benefits are.”