We landed in Fairbanks, Alaska this morning at 1:30 am and my suitcase didn’t make it onto my airplane. So we drove back to the airport about 1:00 pm after church was over this afternoon and still no suitcase. The young lady at the lost luggage desk said that my suitcase got on a plane to Orlando, Florida by mistake but they put it on a flight that would be in tonight at 8:30 pm. So we drove back to the airport this evening and it still wasn’t there and the young lady said my suitcase missed a connecting flight and it was someplace between Fairbanks and Orlando. I stood there while she made a dozen phone calls and finally located my suitcase and I listened while she got the person on the other end to promise that my bag would be in Fairbanks by 8:00!am tomorrow morning. She gave me her personal cell phone number to call before we made another trip back to the airport. Then she gave me 10,000 free air miles for all the hassle, so I am hoping that it doesn’t make it in the morning and I can get another 10,000 miles!

I work at memorizing Bible verses and reviewing the ones I have already memorized about 45 minutes every day. I am now working at memorizing the book of Colossians and I am currently on Collosians 3:12-13 which says, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”

As I was working on those verses tonight I thought, wow! How appropriate those are to my life today. “Dear Lord, please help me to live these verses, thank You, Amen”

We left yesterday from the Portland airport and landed in Fairbanks, Alaska at 2:00 am, and my suitcase wasn’t there. It must have been a bad day for Alaska Airlines because there was a line of about 12 people who all were missing luggage. I stood in line listening to angry people yell at this young lady behind the counter as if she was the culprit. I felt very sorry for her and at the same time was very impressed with her self-control, graciousness, and demeanor as she worked at finding lost luggage for people who had zero appreciation for her. It seems like the way the general population treats other people has gotten much worse in the last number of year’s, people as a whole are much less patient and much more angry. Being nice to others doesn’t seem to be a common goal of very many. I think that as believers in Christ make a concerted effort to be kind to everyone all the time that our Saviour will become more attractive to people who are filled with frustration about most of what life is dealing them.

We are here with our daughter Shelly, her husband and their six wonderful kids, our grandkids, and I am very thankful to be here with them for a couple of weeks even if I don’t have my suitcase.

There are so many things about life, about God, stuff in the Bible, about me that I don’t understand. I think about it, mull it over in my mind, sometimes I look for answers in books or teachings on it, and sometimes I ask other people their thoughts and opinions. I have a very long list of questions that I am going to ask Jesus when I see Him. When I get my new glorified body I imagine that my new body will have a mind that can think and understand way beyond my present mind, and then everything will probably make sense.

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Job had many questions and the main was “Why!” Our kids would ask “why?” about everything and often when I gave an answer they would follow it up with another “why?” When Job had his conversation with God at the end of the book he said,

Job 42:3
Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”

Psalms 131:1-2 111O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.

At the same time that I am working at being at peace with everything that I don’t know or understand, I am also keeping a vacuum of curiosity present in my mind, a hunger for knowledge, understanding and wisdom so that when I read, experience, or hear things that are connected in some way it gets sucked into my mind.

It is one of many areas in my life that I need to maintain balance on.

Larry McCracken died last week. He was the General Director from 1982 until the year 2000 of the North West Conservative Baptist Association which Jefferson Baptist is part of. He was one of three different men who mentored me in the early years of my ministry. He had a major part in my passion to reach the lost and see our church grow. Every time I saw him he would give me a new book to read, recommend a Church Growth Seminar, and ask me what new thing we were doing to reach people with the gospel. We have done a seminar at JBC for 20-plus years and it was Larry who encouraged me to start that.

I would send him a copy of my goals every year and I was always blessed by his response to them. I often went out to lunch with him to get advice on some pastoral problem I was facing. Almost always he would call me a week later and ask me how I was doing with the problem and if I was doing what he advised me to do, and if I said “not yet” he would ask me why not.

As I reminisced today about conversations with Larry I was reminded again how so many different people were used by God to shape me into who I am and were the reason that God has used me to accomplish for Him the things that I have.

I blog on this topic several times each year because I believe it is so important.

I believe that the single most important discipline in my life is my morning prayer of commitment. I pray every morning first thing when I get out of bed a prayer committing my life to the Lord for the day as Lord of my life and my strength for all He wants me to do. As long as I pray that prayer every morning I do all the things that I am committing to do and my life continues upward. God’s power flows to commitment. There is great power in saying “I will” to the Lord and asking for His strength to keep the commitment.

                          Dee’s Daily Commitments

Today, Jesus, I declare You to be King, master, ruler, and Lord of my life. You purchased me with Your blood, I am not in charge of my life, You are. Today I will obey You, I will seek Your perfect will for my life, and I will do whatever You want me to do, no matter how difficult it is. This is the only reasonable thing I can do, in light of all that You have done for me. 

Today, I will read Your Word, I will memorize it and meditate on it, Your Word will not depart from my mind. 

Today, I will be devoted to prayer, I will pray in solitude, with Patty, and with my church family, I will pray without ceasing.

Today I will diligently work at growing in my spiritual gift of teaching and will always be looking for opportunities You provide to teach Your Word to others in speech and in writing. 

Today I will love Patty as You, Jesus have loved the church. She is the only woman in my life mentally, emotionally, and physically. I will honor her by paying sincere attention to her words as she talks to me. I will not get angry at her, not even a little bit irritated, no matter what she does. I will work hard to understand her as a person and I will meet all of her needs. 

Today, I will love any person You sovereignly bring into my life no matter how difficult they might be to love. I will forgive them quickly of any offense against me because You have forgiven me of everything wrong I have done. I will meet the needs in their life sacrificially as I become aware of them. In any conflict I will initiate reconciliation, I will be the peacemaker.

Today, I will do my part to build Your church at JBC and around the world. I will use my gifts, energy, and resources to make Your Bride beautiful, without spot wrinkle or blemish. I will love Your Church, Your eternal Bride as I love You. 

Today I will diligently pursue holiness and the character of Christ. I will confess and repent of all known sins, not justifying, excusing, ignoring, or blaming them on others. 

Today I will exercise self-control over my thoughts and words, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and only speaking words that edify and give grace to those who hear. 

Today I will exercise great self-control over my eating and my exercise recognizing that my physical body is the only means that I have to serve You and do Your work, I am a steward of my body. 

Today I will seek wisdom like gold, silver and precious treasure. I will diligently read good books, listen to good teaching, and get good counsel, never being content with where I am, always wanting more. 

Today I will lift up my eyes and look at the fields that are white all around me looking for open doors, opportunities, and divine appointments and I will be Your ambassador and witness attempting to influence people closer to faith in Jesus. 

Today I will be a leader as God grants opportunity. As I lead I will be gentle, humble, and gracious. I will, not be argumentative, pugnacious, and I will not lord it over people. I will work hard at praising people and honoring them as God’s children. 

I can’t keep these commitments in my own strength. Dear Lord, please fill me with Your Holy Spirit today, grant me Your strength. Today I will glorify You with my life, I will praise and worship You, I will not let the foot of pride step on my neck, and I will walk humbly with my God. 

Write yours out, get it laminated, tape it on your bathroom wall, and read it/ pray it every morning. Wrap a wad of tape around your toothbrush handle to remind you to read it/pray it.

Today I will have ridden my stationary bike for 2 hours, walked/run on the tread mill for 30 minutes, punched the heavy bag for 20 minutes and lifted weights for one hour. That is a total of four hours of torture and pain. Yikes!! Trying hard to get on top of this Parkinson’s pain in the butt. I am getting in shape for our bicycle trip in one month as well and losing weight – about 6 pounds in the last two weeks. One thing about it is that I have increased my praying for Jesus to come back soon four fold!

I need to apply this same level of diligence and effort in my pursuit of Godly character and accomplishments for God. It is so easy to say, “Cool, I am saved by grace, no works required, I am headed to heaven, relax, take it easy, enjoy life, don’t get your tail in a knot, take some pain pills and relax. My oh my, how I would love to do that! But-

2 Peter 1:5-6
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,

2 Peter 1:8
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:11
for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

There is more to it than just getting in the front door, way more.

Howard Schelske, a long-time friend died several days ago and his memorial service was yesterday at Jefferson Baptist Church. It was a great service with a number of his grandkids and sons sharing in the service. They all did an amazing job of clearly communicating their own faith in Christ and their solid hope that Howard is now in heaven with Jesus.

At the service were many old friends that I have not seen for many years. It was very enjoyable to visit and talk for several hours after the service with many of them. It was a reminder that life is a journey with lots of events intersected by many people who shape and form our character and personality and that God is the great orchestrator of it all.

While in the church foyer after the service eating snacks and visiting with friends I got a drink at the drinking fountain and saw the Memorial Plaque on the wall above it of Mike Summers, another very good friend who died years ago from Leukemia. Both my Mom and Dad have died and many other good friends and family have as well. At the service talking to an old friend I hadn’t seen for years, I said, “I will probably see you again at the next funeral of someone we both know,” and he said, “Maybe not because it might be mine or yours!”

I decided that it was time to go for a bicycle ride today in the nice sunshine out on the road with a real bike, and not that stationary thing I have been riding all winter. I got on and headed down the driveway but the left pedal felt funny, and then I remembered the things that went wrong on last year’s bicycle ride from Yorktown, Virginia to home. One of them was that I cross threaded my left pedal into the crank when I bought new pedals that were bigger and had little spikes on them so my shoes would stick better and not slide. As a result I had to have a Helicoil put in the crank so I could thread in the pedal, but the bicycle shop dude put it in crooked so the pedal wobbles as you pedal, not good for riding 70 miles a day for a month. I had forgotten that I was going to fix that this winter. I spent two hours on the internet searching and I finally found a replacement crank, at least I think so. There are so many different sizes and shapes and it is so hard to determine from pictures if it is the right one. When I got a picture I would adjust the size of it so when I laid my old crank on my iPad screen it was the exact same length and then I compared hole sizes and the number of splines. It will be here on Thursday and we leave for Alaska on Saturday. If it is the wrong crank I will need to reorder and put it on during the one day between getting back from Alaska and leaving on our bicycle trip. If that crank is the wrong one I will reorder again and have Patty mail it to me to the next town we will ride through on the bicycle trip and I will put it on during the trip, and if that order is wrong I will pedal with a wobbly pedal and be disgusted with myself every day of the trip for being such a bad procrastinator.

My Dad had a motto that I heard a lot growing up but it doesn’t seem to have stuck with me very well, and that was, “Do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.” If you put it off “what needs to be done” will have babies and you will find that there are now two or three things that need to be done instead of just one.

Do what needs to be done when it needs to be done! Got it! Maybe I got it? we will see, I hope so, anyway! 😩🥺🥵😢☹️

I went fishing today with a friend and his son in my boat at Detroit Lake and we caught no fish. We didn’t even have one get-off, not even a little bite, no fish. I was beginning to doubt my fishing skill until we started asking other boaters as they went by us how they were doing and every one of the dozen or so that we asked said, “No fish,”

It is always nice to catch fish when you go fishing, but I determined a number of year’s ago that I was always going to enjoy every fishing trip no matter how many fish or how few fish that I caught. I can enjoy the scenery, the experience, the fellowship, and the relaxation.

It is interesting to note that I can do almost anything if I choose ahead of time how I am going to think, talk and act. Premeditated decision-making about our behavior and response to different situations allows us to think and commit to obeying God and experiencing His power to live righteously.

Our daughter Sherri lives with us along with her husband Thomas, and their two kids Courage and Praise. They live in the main house and Patty and I live in a little apartment in the back of the house. Meals are kind of a group project with Patty cooking sometimes and Sherri cooking sometimes. Tonight Sherri fried hamburgers and the hamburger meat was very good, Sherri cooked it perfectly, and then on the hamburger were onions, bacon, cheese, tomatoes, avocados, mayonnaise, and the perfect amount of various spices that Africans like. My oh my, the first one was so good that I had a second one. We eat hamburgers a lot in our house so I am not sure why tonight’s were so special, but they were. The problem now is that my expectations have gone up, and I could easily turn into a hamburger snob who is critical, judgmental, and hard to please with average hamburgers cooked by Patty. I know some of you are thinking, “Cook them yourself!” It is too late in life for me to learn to cook, I do cook toast and coffee and I do a pretty good job at both.

One of our biggest problems in our relationship with God is our expectations of Him because of his faithfulness and goodness in the past. We take His provision for us for granted, stop thanking and praising Him for everything and grumble and complain about inconveniences more than we praise Him. The most often given command in the Bible to us is to worship God, praise Him, thank Him for everything.

Thank You Lord for the great hamburgers tonight, and I promise to thank You for all the hamburgers.