There are a number of commands in the Bible that really aren’t commands, they are principles. A command is black and white and easy to understand, but a principle is a guide line with no real absolute so you never are real sure if you have kept it or not. Many of the principles in the New Testament are hard for me to know for sure how well or not so well I am doing. It bugs the heck out of me not knowing for sure if I did what I was supposed to do or not.

One of those principles is in 2 Timothy 2:4, No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

I know what the verse is saying, “keep your life simple so you have time to serve the Lord and others.” But, how simple? I don’t know. I could function with 10% of what I presently own, should I downsize to that point? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the principle keeps an anchor out in my life so that I am careful as I think about purchasing anything new in my life.

Another principle is in 1 Corinthians 10:24, “Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.” I guess the first question I have is the same one asked of Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” “What is the extent of ‘good’ for my neighbor?” “What if I don’t like them?” “What if I don’t agree with them politically?”

Probably the intent of these principles and many others in the Bible is to create some tension or pressure that moves us steadily and maybe even slowly in the direction of the character and lifestyle of the principle. We probably never reach perfection but I think there will come a point in the life of someone striving to please the Lord where they will know that they have come close.

This weekend was very full. I taught Men’s Leadership class on Saturday night at 5:30 pm and then preached Saturday night service. Sunday morning I went to a prayer meeting in the kitchen for the service on Sunday, then taught my “Lady’s Leadership” class at 8:00 am, then preached at the 9:00 am service and agIn at the 11:30 am service, then I taught my Men’s leadership class at 1:00 pm and my Leadership 2 class at 3:00 pm.

Then I went home and took a nap, watched some football and now I am sitting in my recliner eating a big bowl of popcorn as a reward to myself for a good weekend.

Life is good!

Deuteronomy 5:16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Ephesians 6:2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise),

Mom and Dad have both died but I enjoy very much still honoring them by telling stories about their exploits, character, and influence on me. It seems that the feelings and emotions of appreciation, admiration, and love that I have toward them get stronger in me by the year.

I am thinking that the number of positive and affirming stories that I tell about Mom and Dad adds to the feelings I have for them.

The command given by God in His word to honor our Father and Mother is given in both the Old and New Testaments. It is one of the most often repeated commands in the Bible, and it is the first commandment with a reward attached as motivation.

It isn’t Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or either one of their birthdays, but the story yesterday about my Dad’s war experiences just got me in the mood for another blog about them and pictures to boot.

I wrote this about two years ago, shortly after my Mom died and we found some letters in her stuff that she got when my Dad died 30 years earlier. One of them was from a friend of my Dad’s who served with him through World War II. He wrote it to our family as a memorial of my Dad’ service for his country.

I thought I would share the letter from my Dad’s friend about my Dad again as a Vetrans Day salute to all veterans.

The Wasp was an aircraft carrier that Dad was on, and it sank in the Battle of Guadalcanal. This battle lasted over 6 months being fought on land by Marines and supported by numerous ships, including the Wasp. Dad spent several days in the water before being rescued.

The Yorktown, another aircraft carrier sank in the Battle of Midway, a very key battle in the war, and my Dad was on it when it sank.

The Hornet was in many battles and was the aircraft carrier that launched the “Doolittle Raid” when Tokyo was bombed for the first time in the war. It was sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. My Dad was on it when it sank. He was on four different aircraft carriers that were sunk in battle.

One of the stories that my Dad’s friend told; “we were sitting in a gun turret which are mounted on the side of the ship under the flight deck. We were letting our gun cool off from much rapid firing, if the gun is loaded while hot the powder will ignite before the projectile is loaded. We had loaded it successfully before we decided to let it cool. While waiting a Japanese plane came in low around the ship headed right towards us, Duke stomped on the foot firing mechanism and blew that plane into little bitty pieces 200 feet from us. It was funny when it was over, but I can tell you for sure that both Duke and I thought we had bought it that day. We served together on the Hornet, the Wasp, the Yorktown, the Enterprise, the Saratoga, the North Carolina, the O’Brian and others. We spent many hours together sometimes 2 and 3 days straight through in battle at our stations. Please allow me to say and you can tell your 4 sons and your daughter that they can take great pride in being the children of Delbert Duke.”

Almost seems at times that all that my Dad did, and many others like him, was for nothing as our freedoms slip away.

I regularly get frustrated by my inability to do more with my life, to accomplish more, to bear more fruit for God. I am so limited by time, by available resources, and especially by energy. I stated something in my sermon this last week that is a constant “self-talk” line for myself to help me manage my frustration and my often felt guilt for not doing more. “God loved the whole world and gave His only Son, but I can only love a few at a time as He opens the door for me and provides an opportunity; my challenge is not to miss any of those God-given appointments.” The whole world in John 3:16 was not just those who were alive at the time but included me 2000 years later. He has done so much, but there is so much I can’t do, but there is a lot that I can do if I am faithful. If I am faithful, He will give me more to do, but if I am unfaithful, He will take away what I have already been given. If I am devoted to what You give me, Lord. You will provide me with the strength to do it, You will give me the time, and You will provide me with the resources.

The single most important key for me to be faithful is to write goals. My goals are my expression of what I believe is an open door provided by God. If I don’t write a goal, what I saw as a great opportunity fades away in my mind and it is soon gone.

My goal is also a prayer request for wisdom to know how to accomplish it; it is a request for strength, resources, and help from others to accomplish this task given by God. So I don’t say “I can’t,” instead I say, “I can do God’s will for my life, and I will.”

This is a picture of our entire family a couple of weeks ago when everyone was here. 8 kids, 6 son-in-laws, 2 daughter-in-laws, 27 grandkids, and Patty and I. Awesome family!

In 1918, at the 11th hour, in the 11th month, and on the 11th day, World War 1 officially ended.

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, because of the thing from which it has freed us.

In 1954 President Eisenhower signed a bill changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day as a day to honor veterans of every war in American history for their bravery and courage in the face of the enemy who was attempting to take from us our freedoms.

Oct 19 (Reuters) – The rape of a woman aboard a Philadelphia subway witnessed by as many as ten passengers, some of whom appeared to film the attack, could have been stopped quickly if someone had called 911, police said on Tuesday.

That doesn’t sound like “the home of the brave” to me; it sounds like the land of the “chicken-hearted cowards.” I can’t imagine a situation like that where a woman is being attacked, hurt, and humiliated in a public place with ten people watching, and no one does anything.

The people in our country are being trained to be complacent, afraid, and conformists. The rapidly growing government control of the decisions of its citizens is training them to be consumers and spectators who hope things will get better someday. The recent explosion of “cancel culture” has only thrived, in part, because of the neutered agreeableness and abject fear that has become the national norm.

Whether we wear a mask or are vaccinated is really not what matters. What matters is that at some point in this journey we are on, the government will tell us that we can’t gather to worship; oh, I guess they already did that; they will say to us that we can’t witness or share the gospel, the information people need to know to believe so as not to spend the next billion years in torment in hell instead of heaven, they will tell us that we can’t own a Bible, that we can’t pray with our children or teach them about God. Not very long ago I wouldn’t have believed any of that possible in our country, and it still might not, but it certainly looks like a very real possibility and more so every day. And if it does, what are we going to do then?

A group of guys meets together on Monday nights in a shop with a big-screen TV on the wall, a cooler full of soda, carbonated water, water, and coffee, as well as fried chicken, pizza, barbecued tri-tip, chips, and candy. We do a lot of talking, fellowshipping, eating, and we watch some football as well. I enjoy watching football with friends, and I especially enjoy the camaraderie.

Neither the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Chicago Bears are in my top ten favorite NFL teams so I wasn’t watching very attentively, and at the end of the third quarter everyone went home because Pittsburgh was ahead 20 to 6, and the Bears were playing awful! Boring!

When I walked into my house Thomas had the game on and before I looked at the score I said something about the boring game, and he said, “it isn’t boring now. “ I looked at the score and could hardly believe my eyes. In the 17 minute drive back to my house the Bears scored 21 unanswered points and were in the lead! Pittsburgh kicked a field goal with 2 minutes left and won the game by 2 points, but not before Chicago tried a 65-yard field goal with 2 seconds left in the game.

A lot of effort, time, planning, and money go into winning football games. Winning is fun. My kids played sports all through Junior High, High school, and College, and Patty and I missed very few of their games over 20 years, and we would yell and scream and pray that they would win.

The Bible talks about winning in life and uses sports as an illustration;

1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

Hebrews 12:1 let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

For us as Christians, winning isn’t beating someone, it is finishing the race well, having followed Jesus faithfully, having served Him well, bearing much fruit, growing in our character, and glorifying Him with our life.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day;

We will all stand before Jesus at the end of our life and give an accounting of our life. Some will receive many rewards and crowns and some will receive nothing.

Many believers are like the Chicago Bears, it is getting close to the end of the game, and it is time to start thinking seriously about winning.

By the way, you are invited to watch football with me on Monday nights.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man,
but its end is the way of death.

Isaiah 55:8-9 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

The most frustrating thing about our government right now is the obviously stupid decisions that are being made. They are stupid because they are so contrary or opposite God’s way of doing things. In fact they are so obvious that it appears that our leaders are simply rebelling against God, purposely doing everything contrary to His laws. Of course, they are not; most of our leaders have zero understanding of God’s ways or his laws. But even done in ignorance the results are the same, you break God’s laws and judgment follows. We are living in a country and in a time when Almighty God is going to pour out His great wrath down on our country, and the scary thing is we are living in it.

So how do we then live our lives in the midst of this coming storm. We follow God’s principles and laws as individuals, families, and churches. We want as much as possible to live our life so as to be a stark contrast to the world. Those outside God’s family will become very anxious about life as God’s judgment comes and we will be a lighthouse for them.

God will provide all the strength we need to live life victorious during these days. He will also give us the joy the world is so desperately seeking in all the wrong places and ways. And He will give us a peace that is beyond all comprehension that will guard our hearts and our minds as we set our thoughts on God.

As I have grown up and grown older I have had many emarrassing experiences. I tell those stories now and they usually bring a laugh from those listening.

One of them was when I walked into a woman’s restroom because I wasn’t paying attention, and went into a toilet stall, locked the door and then heard the sound of high heels clicking on the hard tile floor as a bunch of ladies entered all at once. I wasn’t sure what to do as ladies pulled on the handle of my locked door looking for an empty stall. I realized that if they looked under the partition they would see my cowboy boots and I would be discovered. I could just imagine a lady yelling “pervert! Pervert!” at the top of her lungs. So I got up on the lid of the toilet and squatted down hiding until they had all left and I managed to sneak out without being discovered. Whoooeeee that was close. As I squatted there on that toilet these prayers from Psalms came to my mind.

Psalms 31:17 Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon You;

Psalms 25:2 O my God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies exult over me.

Psalms 71:1 In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be ashamed.

The human psyche is difficult to understand regarding motives, fears, and the need for personal worth or glory. Many verses in the Bible talk about shame and our fear of it. It appears that shame is the first emotion that Adam and Eve felt after their sin, and we all have been feeling it ever since. We will do just about anything to escape or prevent the experience of shame in our life.

Many of the self-protective methods that people have used to guard against shame in their life are wrong, unwise, and will often compound shame if discovered. Some of those methods are lying, blaming others, boasting, hiding, anti-social behavior, and running away, literally and figuratively.

One of the consequences of sin in our life is shame and freedom from shame is a reward that we receive from God when we seek Him and stay close to Him. God’s protection from shame is an often repeated prayer in the Bible suggesting that He can prevent shame or cause and allow shame to come into our life.

A major blessing that God gives to us as a reward for right living is that He fills us with glory or self worth. Very few people have discovered or realize that God gives and takes away a sense of significance as a motive to seek Him, to live for Him, and to obey Him. He does that with experiences that He either brings into our life or prevents from happening.

It is enlightening to collect all the verses in the Bible on shame and read them all together. There are over a dozen prayers to God asking Him to deliver from or protect from shame and embarrassment.

Many of our fears in life aren’t primarily fear of physical pain, but fear of psychological pain caused from shame. I think that is why most Christians do very little witnessing for Christ, we fear that we will somehow be embarrassed.

The more time we spend with God in the Word and in prayer the more courage we will have and we will not be intimidated by possible embarrassing experiences.