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.

Butchered a cow today. We hung it up in my pump house that I made into a “cool room,” where we will let it hang for a week before we cut all the meat off of the bones and run it through my grinder for hamburger. I insulated my pump house real good, put an air conditioning unit in the wall and purchased a thing called a “coolbot” which overrides the thermostat on the air conditioning unit so that it will go down to 40 degrees. Letting the meat hang for at least a week makes the meat quite a bit more tender than it would have been otherwise.

I try not to do this, but I accidentally poked a hole in the ponch with my knife and “stuff” sprayed all over me! Whooooeee that was smelly! It took us about three hours to finish the job and we had a tractor with a front end loader and a chain.

In the book of Levitucus they butchered thousands of bulls. Those priests must have been amazing when it came to butchering a critter.

Leviticus 1:3-9
If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf. He shall slay the young bull before the Lord; and Aaron’s sons the priests shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting. He shall then skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head and the suet over the wood which is on the fire that is on the altar. Its entrails, however, and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer up in smoke all of it on the altar for a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Have you ever wondered about this system of dealing with sins in the Old Testament? It is strange that the killing of a bull and sprinkling his blood around would be a “soothing aroma” for God. But all the instructions on what to do and how to do it were God’s idea.

A couple of observations: sin was a big deal to God, and it needed paid for and the price included death and thousands of bulls were killed because of all the sins of the people. Jesus was 100% God and 100% man and He lived a perfect life, not sinning even once and He became our sin for us, God looked at Jesus as if He actually committed my sins and then God the Father killed His only Son to pay for my sins. That is amazing and strange all at the same time. My sins certainly are a big deal to God, but I get to live with God forever with a body like Jesus’s because He died for me, and I have believed that to be true and have accepted that amazing gift.

I am so thankful that I wasn’t born in the Old Testament as a Priest who had to butcher all those bulls, just one old cow was a chore today.

I used to think that “Terminal fishing tackle“ was called that because I would lose so much of it getting snagged on the bottom of the river, so it was terminal because it was soon gone. But I was reading some Cabella’s advertisements and it seems that the term comes from being on the “end of the line.” So terminal tackle is like hooks, swivels, weights, and spinners that are where the line terminates. It is funny how some words and phrases come about.

I live inside a terminal body because it won’t be long before I come to the end of the line. In the New Testament Paul called our body a tent because it is so terminal, and he also said that in this body we groan. I certainly can identify with that, I groan every time I get out of my recliner, or my bed, or when I get into or out of my pickup, or into or out of my boat, when I tie my shoes, and when Patty asks me if I want to go shopping!

2 Corinthians 5:1-4 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

I have memorized those verses, and I was thinking that the reason we ache more, and get tired more is because God wants us to think about heaven more, which I certainly do. Paul also said in that passage that he would prefer to be absent from his body and to be present with the Lord, and I say a hearty amen to that.

My Dad died of liver cancer. I wonder what I would feel or think if I was diagnosed with liver cancer tomorrow. I am pretty sure I would think, “see you soon, Jesus!”

My Dad used to say, “Do the right thing because it is the right thing; you shouldn’t even have to think about it.” Some people have quite a few things that they do every day, which are not necessarily right or wrong but because they are important. They do these things day after day with seldom an interruption because they are important, and they don’t even think about it or have a personal debate about whether they are going to do them or not, they just do them. Those people are faithful, reliable, and dependable. They are almost always successful in every area of their life. Those who do what is important every day without fail have trained themselves to be that way. They weren’t born that way; they became that way by effort, discipline, and training.

The first step is to decide what is important and what we should do daily or regularly, like brushing our teeth. Then make a list of these things that make up the basic foundation of our life. If they really are important, and necessary, and we haven’t trained ourselves yet to be faithful in doing them, make a goal and read those goals every day. If you read them every day, you will do them. Keep it up until they are an established, entrenched habit.

Obviously, everything has a beginning, and the beginning for those who have become faithful in doing what is important is writing a goal and reading it every day. Without that beginning discipline none of the others are apt to follow except maybe ones like brushing your teeth.

I read my Bible every day, I spend time in prayer with God every day, I review the day and confess all the sins I can remember every day, I exercise every day, I write my blog every day, I spend 15 minutes minimum every day memorizing scripture, I take my Parkinson’s medicine every day, I brush my teeth every day, I read in a good book every day, I step on the scales every day, I read my goals every day, I record how I spent my time every day, I tell Patty that I love her every day.