My brother Cliff, a friend from our church, Dave Kennedy and myself left my house this morning at 6:00 am. We are driving my pickup and pulling a trailer that I built, that has six bicycles and all our camping stuff for two months in it. The two ladies on the trip are flying out, and we will pick them up at the airport on Wednesday at 4:00 pm. Hopefully, that is the plan. We also have two guys driving out and joining us at the halfway point and bicycle With us the last month of the trip.

The bicycle trip from Yorktown, Virginia to my house is 3,987 miles. The road trip we started this morning is 2,987 miles, exactly 1000 miles shorter. The reason is the bicycle route zig-zags all over the place to stay on back roads that have very little traffic, but our driving route is major Freeways the entire way. We have had the cruise control set on 70 and 80 mph most of the way, and are making good time. We are rotating drivers about every three hours which so far is working good.

We have driven 700 miles in 13 hours which is about 55 mph on average, and we stopped for gas three times and stopped and ate dinner at our son Seth’s place in Twin Falls, Idaho, which was very fun though we only stayed for 30 minutes. So far we are on schedule, hopefully, we don’t run into a tornado😳 Here is a picture of my trailer that I built. It is 7 feet wide, 10 feet long, and 6 foot 1 inch tall. I made it out of 2×2’s and 1/4 in plywood and covered it with fiberglass.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a two-month adventure of driving to Yorktown, Virginia and peddling home on bicycles. Everything is packed and ready to go, I think. All day long I have been going over my lists, racking my brain trying to think of anything I may be forgetting. I have my bicycle, and my bicycle cloths, my camp cloths, and clothes for church, my tent and sleeping bag, a stove and enough food for a year😀. I have tools, spare tires for the pickup and trailer, spare everything for my bike, three tubes of Butt Butter👍, all my meds for two months, sunscreen, pepper spray for dogs, tooth brush, tooth paste, shampoo, razor, lots of liniment, several big bottles of ibuprofen, and my pillow. Oh yeh, my reclining lawn chair, and my Ipad and all charging stuff along with my cell phone. I can’t think of anything else, but if I discover anything I need we can always stop and buy it along the way.

As I ride 8 to 10 hours each day on my bicycle I will be doing a lot of reflective thinking about who I am in character, where I am in my growth, what needs work in me, possible goals for this upcoming year, and the years following. I will also listen to several sermons and lectures on podcasts each day, and my hearing aids blue tooth with my cell phone making it very easy to listen to what I have downloaded. We usually get into camp by 2:00 or 3:00 pm each day so I can easily get 5 or 6 hours of sermon and blog writing in each night along with some reading.

I am very excited and looking forward to the trip, and anticipating some great adventures and experiences.

I feel a lot more pain in my muscles from my Parkinson’s now than I did a year ago. It has taken me a little bit of time, but I have my rules worked out that I follow as I manage this nuisance in my life. I read them a couple times each week to keep them fresh in my thinking.

1. Don’t ask or think “why,” because it makes no difference in the level of pain I feel, and even if I figure out the answer nothing will change, the pain is still there, so just accept it.

2. Don’t think self-pity thoughts for a second, nothing will turn me into a grouchy old man quicker.

3. Remember the good old days of great health, energy, and coordination, and rejoice and thank the Lord for so many of those good days; they were a gift from God.

4. Think about heaven and my new glorified body in great detail at least a dozen times each day; it won’t be long now😀

5. Stay faithful to reading the Bible every day in significant volume even though I don’t feel like it when I am hurting.

6. The same goes for praying, memorizing scripture, reading good books, writing, and listening to podcasts of good preaching and teaching.

7. Don’t let pain turn you into a wimp or a cry baby.

8. Pain makes me tired mentally and emotionally, but don’t say “no” to opportunities to bear fruit for God; he gives strength to the weary if they get out of their recliner.

9. When the pain becomes unbearable, say, “Thank You, Lord, for building my character! I can do this with Your strength.”

10. Always be pleasant, cheerful, and focused on others in all social settings.

11. Don’t say things intended to elicit sympathy from others.

12. Take your meds on time and exercise as if it is the most important thing you do for your health, because it is!”

Having grown up in Trout Lake which is near Mt Adams and because our church has hosted a Mt climbing trip up Adams each year for the last 40 years I have climbed Mt Adams a bunch. But I have failed to make it to the summit the last three times I have climbed. Last year I didn’t even try, I basically figured that, that chapter of my life was over. I have been thinking about it a lot for the last year. I would like to make it to the top and then retire from climbing, not go out as a loser. I figured that if I could camp at the 10,000-foot mark and then summit from there that I could make it, which is what I did the last time I climbed two years ago. But carrying the weight of the pack had me all tuckered out and I only made it another 1000 feet the next day before I quit. So I decided I needed to climb a week after I get back from my bicycle trip when I will be in pretty good shape after biking an average of 70 miles each day for 62 days, and I needed to find a tough young guy who would climb with me and carry my camping stuff along with his own. Well, I was telling my plan to my son-in-law at our family Easter dinner, a pastor in Washington who just happens to be a tough young guy, and he said he would carry my pack and climb with me. So I have a new B-HAG, “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” “I will successfully climb Mt Adams with my son-in-law camping at the “lunch counter” summiting the next day, and then camping again on the way down. We will do this on July 7th, 8th, and 9th.”

Many people fall away from the Lord when they get older, and many seniors plateau and stop growing. One of the reasons is that as people get older, they tend to eliminate hard things and activities from their life. I don’t want to backslide or stop bearing fruit as I get older, I want to keep shifting into a higher gear and finish my life with a sprint.

Here is a picture of my tent on Mt Adams two years ago when I tried to summit the mountain but failed.

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We leave for Yorktown, Virginia in five more days. I am taking my pickup and pulling a little covered trailer that I built. Today I finished painting the trailer and did a few minor things to it, and now it is ready to go across the United States twice, there and back. We are driving straight through, stopping only to eat, get gas, go potty, and stretch our legs for a little bit. The two ladies going are going to fly back, and four guys will drive the pickup back, probably rotating drivers every three or four hours for the approximately 60 hours it will take to drive back East. The trailer will hold six bicycles and some gear. I bought a canopy for my pickup on Craig’s list so that we will put most of our gear in it. I also bought a little RV refrigerator that runs on propane and 12 volts to put in the trailer and built a fold-down shelf that we can put a propane camp stove on.

I plan on losing 40 lbs on the trip and coming home weighing 188 lbs, which I weighed at our wedding 53 years ago. I am sure that everything I need on the trip is packed in three plastic tote boxes. We will leave at 6:00 am on Monday, and start bicycling at 6:00 am on April 28th, Thursday. If everything goes as planned we will be home on June 30th, having ridden 4,000 miles on our bicycles.

Our Easter services at JBC we’re incredible, and to me obviously blessed by God. The worship, the seven baptisms, the amazing special music, and the gospel presentation were a result of five days of praying with 2,500 people/hours of pray! The response from people both regulars and visitors at the Easter services was that it was the best Easter service that they had ever experienced because of the strong sense of God’s presence. I believe that we will continue to see results from the “Five Day Prayer Event” for months to come. When God’s people pray together with unity, with focus on God’s will of reaching the lost, with passion, and sacrifice He works powerfully. God’s will is that we pray, not token, convenient, comfortable praying, but with, well, just like the Five Days of Prayer!

Philippians 2:5-8
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

1. Jesus before His conception in the womb of Mary existed in the “form” of God.

2. Jesus before His conception was equal to God the Father.

3. As a result of His conception and birth Jesus took the “form” of man and was made in the likeness of men.

2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

4. It appears that acknowledging and believing that Jesus came in the flesh is an essential part of the gospel.

Luke 24:36-43 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.

5. The body that Jesus had after He rose from the dead was flesh and bones.

6. Jesus ate food with his post-resurrection physical body.

7. The post-resurrection body of Jesus, though it was physical with flesh and blood that ate real food, and that the disciples could touch, was also “glorified,” “supernatural,” in that He just “appeared” to the disciples out of thin air as it were.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

8. It appears that the “form” that Jesus was made into was permanent, He did not go back to his previous “form” that He existed in.

9. When we as believers in Christ are resurrected we will receive a body like Jesus has now.

10. Jesus chose to become like us in “form” so that we could become like Him in character, so that He can enjoy us and we can enjoy him for all eternity.

(I am going to preach on “Attentiveness” this Wednesday night at our regular service at JBC that starts at 6:30 pm. )

1 Peter 5:8
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

“Be on the alert,” is a command that very few believers obey, or even work on. Our ability to live our life based on invisible truths is low. The devil and his demons are a very real force in our life, but because we can’t see them we rarely think about them. I hear people make comments about the devil working in their life, and they are almost always referring to difficult circumstances. It isn’t difficult circumstances and trials that are the problem in successfully living life but how we think about them.

1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

“Paying attention to deceitful spirits.” If I pay attention to an advertisement on television that is attempting to talk me into buying a new car, I very likely will buy it. “Paying attention to” is “listening attentively to,” and allowing the information I hear to influence my choices.

2 Corinthians 11:3
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

The devil’s goal is to control our thinking. How we think determines how we live. The devil tempted Jesus by talking to Him, and he does the same with us. He talks to us and we hear him in our thoughts. Those thoughts, if we pay attention to them will negatively influence our life.

Attentiveness is being quick to identify thoughts that pop into our mind that are most likely from the devil via one of his demons, and then countering that thought with a truth from the Bible. Those who infrequently read the Bible or memorize it won’t stand a chance in resisting the devil.

On good Friday, the words of Jesus on the cross are often highlighted. One of the phrases was to one of the thieves that were crucified with Jesus.

Luke 23:43
And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Paradise was not heaven, it was the place of the saved or righteous dead. Until Jesus rose from the dead no one was in heaven because sin had not yet been paid for. Paradise was in the center of the earth and was in the same proximity as hell though they were separated.

Luke 16:23-24
In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’

The rich man was in hades or hell, and Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom or paradise. They could see each other and they could hear each other.

In the Old Testament, Samuel the prophet had died and Saul was frightened about an upcoming war with the Philistines so he hired a witch to see if she could talk to Samuel and ask him some questions. When Samuel appeared to her he came up from the earth.

1 Samuel 28:13-14
The king said to her, “Do not be afraid; but what do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a divine being coming up out of the earth.” He said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage.

When Jesus rose from the dead He led all those who were in paradise into heaven as a big parade.

Ephesians 4:8
Therefore it says, when He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives,

When Jesus died on the cross he went to the center of the earth and when He rose from the dead He entered heaven.

Ephesians 4:9-10
(Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)

Matthew 12:40
for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Now, because of our faith in what Jesus did and who he is we go directly to heaven when we die.

I have been having so many negative thoughts about going down and praying at the church during this “Five Days of Prayer.” I have felt terrible since day one of the prayer event, my muscles are killing me, I have had a constant upset stomach, my head aches, and I am exhausted. Sitting here tonight thoughts popped into my head nonstop about sleeping in and skipping prayer tomorrow morning, because after all I had already prayed 33 hours.

After I got over my pitty party which no one came to but me, I thought, this must be a really important prayer time, I can’t think of any prayer event in the past that I have struggled with going to as much as this one.

So, being the competitor that I am, there was no way I am going to let the devil push me around and win this fight. One more day, let’s end it with a bang!

There are so many people in our church who don’t participate in these prayer events. I know that there are legitimate reasons for some, but most I am thinking are like those Paul told Timothy about,”they are being held captive by the evil one to do his will instead of God’s.” Sad that Christians don’t have enough commitment to break free from the control of satan in their lives. I guess I shouldn’t be to critical, I came close to being one of those that the devil controlled.

It is amazing how much better I feel now after writing this.