Patty and I went to an event tonight where our oldest daughter, Sarah, was speaking. I thought she did a marvelous job of teaching the Word of God in a unique way that held people’s attention and communicated clearly the truth that motivated those listening to life change. As her father, I was very proud of her. She has done a lot of speaking but tonight was the first time that I have heard her.

I am a professional speaker/teacher/ preacher; that is, I preach and teach most of the time in one form or another as my occupation. It is my ministry; that is, I do it for God, but I still get paid by people who listen to me. Because it is what I do, I work diligently at getting better and better at the skill and the craft of communicating truth to people in a way that makes sense to them, motivates them, and encourages them to change how they live their lives. I recognize that teaching the Bible is a supernatural event that the Holy Spirit is empowering. Still, I also have listened to many teaching the Bible who claim to be empowered by God and guided by the Holy Spirit but who are as boring as dirt, make no sense at all, and encourage no one to life change. There are several factors in being a great teacher for God: giftedness, character, holiness, prayer, and especially diligence in preparation; God honors, blesses, and empowers those who are not lazy in their preparation, who recognize the sacredness of the privilege of teaching the Holy Word of God to people, and give it their all.

1 Timothy 4:15-16
Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure spiritual growth both for yourself and for those who hear you.

At this stage in my ministry, I do a lot of coaching with Pastors on their preaching/teaching ministry. I listen to many sermons and lessons both by those just getting started in their ministry and by those who have been at it for years and have become masters at teaching the Word of God with power. I haven’t heard very many as effective as my daughter was tonight, but then, I am a very proud and prejudiced Dad.

It is interesting to read the various estimates of the number of people who have lived and died in the history of the world. Whatever system is used and whatever the number of years that is used as the total number of years that people have lived on the earth, it is a large number, in the billions. Have you ever pondered on the fact that you are one person in the midst of billions of people? I think about it all the time. I am a self-aware person. I think, I talk to myself, I am aware, I pray to God, I believe that in the midst of all that is going on and has gone on, that God is intimately aware of who I am, that He loves me, has plans for my eternity, and has been working in my life shaping and forming me into a person being created in His image and likeness.

I am self-aware, but I have no sense of what is going on inside your soul. You are self-aware, but you cannot read my mind or have any idea who I really am on the inside, only God knows my heart. We are all a bunch of islands, as it were, living together, talking to each other, trying to understand each other, touching, kissing, and hugging each other in various degrees of intimacy. It all is a huge mystery, almost infinite.

In the midst of the sea of history, in this great ocean of humanity, here I am like a little cork bobbing around in the ocean, trying to make sense of it all, trying to feel some sense that I have purpose, value, and meaning. It is no wonder that as our world, which used to have some level of sense about what was going on, is unraveling, more people are becoming confused, disillusioned, terrified, and with no sense of purpose or hope for the future, just a number.

My anchor is the Bible. It is a history book of a tiny slice of the history of the world and humanity. But in that small sampling of the totality of life, it is clear that it is not random, by chance, or out of control. God, who is very real, wise, and mighty, is in total control, and I am a crucial part of His life and plans for the future. I know that without a doubt. It isn’t hard for any person who feels the lostness of life to find purpose and meaning in God. Any person who truly seeks diligently for Him will find Him.

Patty and I got home from Alaska this morning. She was hanging out with grandkids and I went hunting with two son-in-laws for caribou on the North Slope of Alaska. The North Slope is that area of Alaska that is north of the Brooks Range, which is the northern most areas in Alaska. There is one road in that entire area that goes to Prudhoe Bay and the oil fields.

We drove 14 hours on this road called “The Haul Road” from Fairbanks, Alaska, north, to where we put Philips boat in the Sagavanirktok River, which most call the Sag River. The road was gravel, muddy, and very, very bumpy. We went up the Sag River for an hour and then turned onto the Ivashack River and went for several more hours until we reached the spot where we camped for a week, hunting for caribou.

The North Slope is Tundra with no trees, just little bushes. It is all on permafrost so the ground is all wet and spongy and you sink in every step that you take. It is incredibly hard to walk on, and in fact, I didn’t walk on it much. I got in a spot where I could see a long way and looked for caribou with my binoculars and then prayed that they would walk close enough to my chair that I could shoot them. None did, but both of my sons-in-law got very nice caribou and they shared the meat with me so we brought 50 lbs home with us on the airplane. Caribou meat is the tastiest of all meat in my opinion.

We are home now for the next nine months so I will be writing my blog every day, teaching and preaching every week, fishing a little bit, golfing a little bit, exercising, reading, and getting older slowly. Here are some pictures of our Alaskan adventure.

Patty and I are leaving for Fairbanks, Alaska this morning at 8:00 am This will be the last blog for two weeks. On the North Slope where we are hunting there is no cell service. I will take lots of pictures and write a couple of blogs about our adventures when we get back.

One of the most important disciplines in our life is reading. God sovereignly chose to preserve the Bible in written form, God wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger. God created us, He created our minds, and in His choosing and planning everything He ordained that reading and writing are a major form of communicating, teaching, recording history, and learning. Every one of our kids when they were little loved for me to read to them. Often whenever I came home at least one of the youngest would come running to me with a book in their hand. Listening to someone teach and reading are the two major ways we learn and then we make it permanent in us by doing it, experimenting, and practicing.

So many adults because of busyness and life responsibilities quit reading. The day we quit reading is the day our brains start to decay. Reading is to our brain what walking, running and bicycling is to our legs. Quit exercising and you will get fat, weak, and very prone to getting sick.

When I first started Pastoring I read every book ever published on Church Growth and Health. I read biographies of healthy and growing churches, current and also historical. I read the Early Church Fathers, and I read lots of church history books. I read with a principle in mind, if Charles Spurgeon’s church grew rapidly with many thousands coming to faith in Christ, there was a reason, and I was bent on discovering that reason and putting it into practice in my own life.

Certain things you do religiously, not because it is fun but because it is right, good, and profitable for your life and promotes fruit-bearing in your life. Every person ought to make a reading goal for their life and constantly be pushing it higher. My reading goal for years has been 50 pages each week, but this year it is going to be 100 pages each week. There are so many good books, and I learn so much and I am very motivated by good books and the things that they teach in them. Some of them will be on fishing, hunting, rebuilding engines and cars, playing golf, and building things, but most will be on the book of 2 Peter, on demons and angels, on church growth and health, and on how to teach and preach better.

When Patty and I were raising our kids we read books on parenting together, and we read books on how to have a wonderful marriage together. Very few married couples do that today, takes too much time from their favorite television program.

We traveled a lot when I was a kid following my Dad on his ship. When we would drive from one port city to the next my Mom would check out a box full of books for me from the library to read while we were traveling. We had a Plymouth station wagon and the back seat faced backward. I would sit in that seat and read for hours and hours. That is probably why I don’t get motion sickness or seasick even in the worst of storms. But it is also the reason that I read so much now.

One of the greetings that I get occasionally is, “What do you know for sure?” If it were more than a greeting, and was a genuine question with interest I could list a lot of things that I know for sure. If someone asked me today I would respond, “I know it is hot!”

When I am talking to people about faith in Jesus, I will often start with the question, “If you died tonight, do you know for sure, without a doubt, that you would go to heaven and not hell?” Most people don’t give me a straight-up “yes or no” answer, just around the bush, not sure what to say, fuzzy talk. Sometimes, depending on if I perceive any interest, I will follow up with, “I know for sure that I am going to heaven when I die; I could share with you how you could know for sure as well if you wanted.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has also set eternity in their heart,

That verse means that all people know for sure that when they die, they don’t just turn into dirt; something in them lives on in consciousness. But because they don’t know anything else beyond that for sure, it is easier to say that beyond death, there is nothing.

Romans 1:19-20 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

The fact that there is a God is evident inside us; God puts the awareness that there is a God in every person; we know for sure that there is a God, an intelligent creator, but many ignore that evidence and even deny it.

Because I know for sure, without a doubt, that I will live beyond death, and because I know for sure without a doubt that there is a God, if I didn’t know what happened to me after I died, I would diligently seek for an answer. I don’t know how people can live in that state of limbo, not knowing for sure what their eternal destiny is and where they will live, especially in light of how hot it was today!

Starting the first weekend in October, I will be teaching weekly classes that I call “Leadership Class.” I don’t define leadership as leading officially or being in charge of something or someone. I define leadership as the “influence” you have over other people; because of your character, consistent behavior, and your words the people around you change their behavior, way of living, priorities, and character. You influenced them to change for the better by your leadership. A part of our leadership is because of the positive example that our life is to those around us, and another key part is the fact that God supernaturally works in their life through us. “THROUGH US – THROUGH US – THROUGH US.” God supernaturally works through people to cause great growth and change in others. He only works through qualified people. Leadership Class asks and answers the question, “What qualifications does God require in order to work through us?” Jesus said to Matthew when He called him, “Follow Me and I will make you a fisher of men.” Jesus was going to teach Matthew what he needed to do and be so that he could influence other people for Jesus. Jesus was making Matthew a leader.

Electricity travels through material called conductors. If we go to “Home Depot” and buy a roll of electrical wire, we are buying material that conducts the electricity to our lights, refrigerator, and oven to give them power. The top four conductors of electricity are silver, copper, gold, and aluminum. The poorest conductors of electricity are lead and stainless steel. The top four non-conductors or insulators of electricity are plastic, rubber, wood and glass. In regards to the power of the Holy Spirit working through us into the lives of others, some people are silver, copper, gold, and aluminum, others are lead, and still others are plastic, rubber, wood, and glass.

We don’t want to be non-conductors or even poor conductors, we want to be good conductors of God’s power into the lives of our kids, spouse, people we work with, friends, neighbors, those in our church, and even to people we don’t like. Leadership class teaches us how to become golden conductors.

2 Timothy 2:20-21 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, , , Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

We can be gold or silver, which are good conductors, or we can be lead, a poor conductor or we can be wood and clay, which are non-conductors.

“Leadership Class” is all about learning what makes us gold and silver conductors of God’s power into the lives of others. Most Christians are lead or even wood and clay; their godly, positive influence in the lives of the people around them is very little, if any. They aren’t necessarily bad people, just non-conductors or poor conductors of God’s power into the lives of others.

There are separate first-year leadership classes for men, and woman and there is a Leadership II class for men and woman together. Want, want a lot, want bad, really want to be a golden vessel, useful to God, and be willing to pay the price.

Way back in 2018, I got the idea to build a boat big enough to go out on the ocean with so that we could fish for halibut on it. We had most years that we had gone up to Alaska gone out on a charter to fish for halibut, which cost $300 per person. So I researched different kinds of boats, the difficulty of building various types, Alaska, halibut fishing, and available plans and instructions on building. After many hours of reading, researching, and even going for rides in some different styles of boats, I decided on a 26-foot ocean-going dory, the kind that many commercial fishermen off of the coast of Oregon use and also sport fishing charters use out of Pacific City. I bought the plans and materials, and I built it in four months in what used to be the church shop before it was remodeled and converted into a storage building. I made it and recruited some friends to help me, and we pulled it to Alaska, driving 60 hours non-stop to get it there. I took it out three times in the next three weeks and caught nothing. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t know how to fish for halibut. I got discouraged with the halibut fishing thing, called myself an idiot for coming up with such a stupid idea, and pulled the boat back home. It has been here for the last five years. That was an expensive experiment, gas is expensive in Canada, and I felt like a dummy and a failure. The most I have done with it here is to fish on the Colombia for Shad twice. The motor was unreliable and small, so I bought a Mercury 135 hp motor and had it rebuilt. It is a very reliable and robust motor for a magnificent boat. I have been planning to fish in the ocean here and do a bunch of crabbing out of it.

A couple of years ago, I was up at the Portland Sportsman’s Show, which I go to every year, and I saw a booth advertising guided halibut fishing out of a drift boat near where I fish in Alaska. I looked at all of his pictures and watched all of his videos. I was intrigued because they didn’t even use a motor; the guide rowed it out into the ocean and fished for halibut. I thought, “That is crazy!” so I booked a trip; in fact, I booked two trips and went out in the ocean fishing with him the following summer when I was up there on our annual salmon fishing adventure. It was great; it was terrific; in fact, it was awesome. I thought, WOW, I went out in a drift boat one-quarter mile from shore in 20 feet of water with this guide and caught halibut. So two years ago, I built an 18 ft drift boat up at Tim’s place in Soldotna, Alaska. Last year I built a trailer for it, and I also met a fellow that some long-time friends of mine who live in Alaska recommended that I get together with. I connected with him by cell phone and drove to his house, and talked with him for hours about fishing for halibut out of a drift boat. He was about my age, and he took his drift boat out in the ocean with his old wife, fishing for Halibut all the time and almost always limited out. So this year, I took my drift boat out six times, following all the guidelines my new friend gave me, and we caught lots of halibut; it was a blast.

All the time we were fishing in my relatively small 18 ft drift boat with a little 2.3 hp motor on it, I thought this would be so much more comfortable out of my dory. My dory is 26 feet long; you can stand up in it, you can walk around in it, and you can get four to six people in it. My dory was built for this; it would be amazing, no, it would be awesome!

So, I will pull my dory back o Alaska again next year and leave it up there. We are going to build a house for it, and we are going to catch lots and lots of halibut out of it. I am going to become an expert at catching halibut in Cook Inlet.

I love catching sockeye salmon, but there are those slow days, and now we can catch halibut on those days. I love fishing for Halibut so much; it will have to be a really hot day fishing for salmon to pull me off of the ocean.

I am stoked about my new plan, I will be looking for people to help drive next year, so if you have always wanted to go to Tim’s Place, “Funny River Fellowship Lodge – Where the Tug is the Drug”, but couldn’t afford the airfare, this could be your chance.

In the Colombia river fishing for Shad

We flew home from Alaska yesterday; Patty picked us up from the airport at 7:30 pm, we had to make several stops to deliver people and fish on the way home, and we got home about midnight and into bed at about 1:00 am. I got up at 4:00 am yesterday morning to get everything ready for flying home, so this morning, I slept until 10:00 am, and boy, oh boy, did that feel good. I have not slept in my own bed much since the beginning of May, and I had forgotten what a lovely bed it is and how much my old body likes it. I can’t imagine anything feeling much better. I honestly thought about sleeping for 24 hours; I know I could have done it. One of my new goals that I made this summer is to be done with my lifelong habit of sleeping 5 or 6 hours a night. I started that way back in my dairy farming days, and when I started pastoring, I often milked cows from midnight until 6:00 am to help make ends meet, so I got used to the short nights of sleep to get everything done.

On the bicycle trip, I got 8 or 9 hours of sleep almost every night because that is when everyone else went to bed, so I just joined them in the routine. Up in Alaska, there were many nights of fishing most of the night, but I made up for it the next day by sleeping for all most all day long. So, all in all, I easily averaged over 8 hours of sleep every day. I guess it took three months of sleeping at least eight hours most nights to realize how much better I felt. Now, as a result of getting my eating squared away, losing weight, taking a bunch of vitamins and supplements, and sleeping eight hours a day, I probably will live to be 100 years old.

The easy way to accomplish this goal is to eliminate or move all my morning commitments. But my favorite ministry is meeting with my different “Men’s Accountability Groups” each morning at 6:00 am. That is the only time that works to have them, and I believe strongly in the power of encouragement and accountability with men.

So, I guess I will have to discipline myself to be in bed by 9:00 pm. Patty goes to bed on most nights at 9:00 so I will just have to join her. Yep, I think I am going to live to be 100.

We are heading home tomorrow on Alaska Airlines, and Patty is picking us up at the airport in Portland at 7:30 pm. I have been in Alaska fishing for almost a month. Patty let’s me do it because she has all those grandkids to keep her busy, but I sure get to missing her. I am going back up to Alaska a week after I get home to go on a caribou hunting trip with two sons-in-law, but she is coming with me. Patty won’t go out in the bush hunting with us, she will stay at our daughter, Shelly’s house in Fairbanks with their six kids, yep Patty and the grandkids.

Over the last 53 years of marriage I have been gone off and on quite a bit. I used to travel a bunch for speaking engagements and then lots of mission trips around the world, and then month long bicycle trips, and hunting and fishing trips. Neither of us has struggled much with the separations, not because we don’t enjoy each others company or we don’t miss each other, because we do, it has just been part of our life and neither of us fusses much about what life dishes out for us, that’s just the way it is.

When Patty picks us up at the airport she will greet me and talk to me like we had dinner together today. For 53 years we have operated by a number of key principles in our relationship and marriage, none of them are written down, and if someone were to ask us what they were we would both be hard pressed to express them clearly, but we understand them and live by them consistently. The result has been 53 years of a great marriage and a very healthy and secure family life resulting in good kids and grandkids.

One of those principles is that the Lord is first place in our lives, nothing is more important to us than He is, not even our spouse or our kids. The Lord is our primary source of our security and joy in life, more than anything or anybody. Jesus said in

Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

The word hate here has the idea of love less to the point of being like hate because of the great difference. The love that I have for Patty is great but in comparison to my love for Jesus it is like hate. That entire concept is tough to live and almost impossible to measure. Regular separations are a good time to think about this, evaluate it, and make adjustments if needed.

God has stated clearly that He will not tolerate being second place in our life if we want to serve Him and have a relationship with Him. If we diligently seek Him first He will make all the other important things in our life amazing, especially our marriage and family.

God asked Abraham to offer up his only son, Isaac, as an offering to God. why? He wanted to see what was most important to Abraham, the Lord or his son. And because Abraham was willing to kill his only son, God blessed Him immensely.