A little over a year ago I went off of all refined sugar, 100%. I did it to improve my blood sugar level and to help with weight loss, but what I discovered in just 2 weeks was that my Parkinson’s improved dramatically. I had already discovered that exercise also helped a bunch so I started riding a stationary bike at least an hour every night. Between the two, no sugar and exercise I was doing pretty good in spite of the Parkinson’s. I still have it and it is progressing slowly, but I am keeping it under control with the diet and exercise and I have now increased my exercise to 90 minutes most nights rotating in weight lifting, tread mill, punching a heavy bag, and spending time on a rowing machine. So tonight when I got home from 3 days at the coast at a “Pastor’s Prayer Summit” Patty was gone to our daughter, Hanna’s place up in Washington, but next to my chair was a chocolate bar that was sugar free. As I ate it, enjoying every bite, I thought repeatedly, what a wonderful wife I have. Some sugar free stuff I have tried tastes terrible, but this chocolate bar was heavenly. I am sure she probably bought several, but as hard as I looked I couldn’t find where she hid them. It is probably a good thing or I would have eaten them all.

What does it mean to love someone? One of the things it means is that you work hard at making them happy. You think about what they like and enjoy in the way of experience, gifts, words and then you bring those things into their life at the perfect times. Actually, I think the timing is more important than the actual event or thing, which is such a major indicator of thoughtfulness. A little, sugar free chocolate bar probably cost about a dollar, but the timing was perfect and I feel very loved. Now, I need to think of something that I can do for Patty, I know, I will buy her something at the Sportsman’s Show in Portland that I am going to on Friday.😀

Today I bought 4 Kindle books from Amazon and they were all on emotional health. I am in the process of reading them all and will probably incorporate much of what I learn from the books into my “Leadership Training” that I do at our church. Our lives are about relationships, our relationship with Jesus, with our spouse, our kids, and with people in our church, neighborhoods, and the work place. A major key to healthy relationships is healthy emotions or a healthy soul. Another way of saying it is being mature as apposed to childish in our relationships. Emotionally healthy people don’t easily take offense at things, that is they don’t easily get their feelings hurt. They are secure and confident in situations where the outcome is uncertain and they have little control over the outcome. Emotionally healthy people treat other people with respect and honor because they don’t feel intimidated by them or in competition with them. There are a lot of adults who are not healthy on the inside, in their soul. So how does one pursue a healthy soul, emotional health. One of the most difficult problems that immature people is their personal blindness to the condition of their soul. They don’t realize they are unhealthy on the inside so they don’t pursue growth in this area of their life. I can teach the skill of growing up on the inside. I can teach self examination, reflective thinking, and I can teach how to set goals for ourselves after self examination, goals that will promote growth in our soul. Discipleship is the primary purpose of our church having been commanded by Jesus to make disciples, and a key part of discipleship is teaching people how to have healthy relationships with others.

From the age of 20 to 30 I skied a lot. In Trout Lake where I farmed we had a lot of snow in the winter so we built our own rope tow using a tractor on a truck with a 2 inch groove cut in one of the back tires. We rounded up almost a 1000 yards of 2 inch diameter rope, braided it in one big loop, put a car rim as a pulley at the top of a clear cut, put the rope around the pulley, jacked the back tire of the tractor off of the bed of the truck, ran the rope around it in the groove, put 5 gallons of diesel fuel in the tractor, started it, and skied for hours. We also got guys who owned snow machines to tow us up the road that was covered with snow to the top of Flat Top Mountain that had a fire lookout station at the top, and skied down the back side on the cleared trail made to run power poles to supply power and telephone service to the lookout station. We also would drive to Mt Hood Meadows and would ski almost every week all winter long. So for 10 years I skied a lot and got to be a pretty good skier. I am now 71 years old and have not skied for 40 years, but I am going to go skiing at Mt Bachelor in a couple of weeks. I am pretty sure that I am going to spend more time laying in the snow than skiing down the hill in spite of the fact that I am going to spend my time on the “ Bunny Hill”. I am anticipating having some spectacular wrecks in which I could break any number of body parts. The reason that this will happen is because a learned skill like skiing is forgotten if neglected for very long.

Another thing that slips away easily is my devotion to Jesus Christ as the Lord, the boss of my life. I don’t want it to happen, I don’t plan on it happening, it just does. Life gets hectic and I forget who is in charge of my life. The slipping away is slow at first and then picks up speed faster and faster. If I don’t catch it, repent, and recommit my life to Jesus as Lord there is the real danger that I would fall so far that coming back to being a fully devoted follower of Jesus may never happen. I have purposely built in events into my life and schedule that jerk me back into clear thinking resulting in solidly returning to Jesus as my first love, my Lord, my master, and my king. One such event is the annual 3 day Pastor’s Prayer Summit” held at Cannon Beach. It is away from everything in my normal life, the days are filled with worship and prayer, and the result for 32 years of coming is always the same, Jesus is King of my life, totally. I am here now, and the first day has been great, amazing, super, and awesome!

One of the characteristics that almost all people have in common is that we like to win. I enjoyed the Super Bowl today because of the degree of competition and because my favorite team of the two playing won. Little kids compete with each other at an early age without being taught how to win. Competition and the desire to win can be a good thing in attempting to motivate ourselves to pursue excellence and success in life, but it can also create bitterness and meanness in our relationships as unhealthy pride pushes us to defeat others so that we can consider ourselves better than them and feel good about ourselves. I played sports all through High School and College, basketball, track, wrestling, and baseball, and always practiced super hard so I could win. When I started pastoring Jefferson Baptist Church I played on our church basketball team and softball team for years. I once told my wife that 90% of my sins were committed while I was playing competitive sports. At this point in my life I compete fishing and playing golf and in neither activity do I get to agitated if I lose. Now I compete with myself in the pursuit of my goals as I try to accomplish more even while it gets harder as I get older.

I am saved, forgiven, adopted into God’s family, headed for heaven forever. Once I get there I get a new Body that will be like the body of Jesus, it won’t get sick, tired, old, achy, ugly, or senile. My salvation was a free gift from God, received by faith. I didn’t have to work for it, earn it, be good for it, just believe, which I did and do. But now that I am in the family of God I work hard to be good, to serve others, to grow in maturity and wisdom.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

This verse is a daily meditation verse for me. It keeps me motivated to keep serving the Lord with all of my strength, to be a really good steward of my time, and to prioritize my life around those activities that are the most important to accomplishing things that have eternal significance.

I don’t know what the Judgment Seat will be like, I don’t know what it will look like, I don’t know for sure how I will do standing before Jesus giving an account of what I accomplished for Him. I don’t know for sure what the rewards are.

But I do know I want as many as I can get. I know they will make a significant difference in heaven for me. I do know that Paul was motivated by the prospect of earning rewards and possibly even losing some.

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Please read this blog carefully, thoughtfully, it is so important!

John 17 is the prayer that Jesus prays right before Judas betrays Him, and He is arrested and crucified. His prayer was for us today, His Church, referred to in these verses as “them” and “they”.

John 17:22-23 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Understanding the “Trinity” and the unity and the oneness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is essential to understanding the meaning of these verses and the unity of the church that Jesus desires and prays for here. “That they may be one, just as We are one”. That is amazing that Jesus is praying for us to be as unified as the Trinity! Is that possible, evidently it is or He wouldn’t pray it.The problem is that most people define unity and oneness as the absence of conflict, when what Jesus was praying for was so much more. The oneness of the Trinity is oneness in purpose, they are so together, so focused on the same thing that it is like they are one, but still three distinct personalities. This picture is the most powerful expression of “oneness” that there is for a church family, this is 70 people who are part of JBC praying together for the salvation of the world. Read Jesus’ words again, “that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me,” in Matthew 18 Jesus says that when we are gathered together to pray He is in us. Read John 17:23 one more time, “that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me,” The Corporate Prayer Meeting of a local church is the highest, most powerful expression of Trinitarian unity that there is. The problem is that most people in a local church see the prayer meeting as a boring, religious exercise for the super spiritual. The corporate prayer meetings of a local church properly understood, and undertaken with faith has the power to change the world, it really does, but most are way to busy to make it a priority, way to self-absorbed to care about changing the world, and they have such a low view of the church that this blog makes no sense to them.

This week is JBC’s “Five Days of Prayer” and I am getting up every morning this week at 4:30 am to be ready for the start of prayer at 5:00 am. We have prayer for 10 hours each day for the 5 days and my goal is to be at 8 hours each day minimum so I usually don’t head home until at least 9:00 pm. After I get home I write this blog, lift weights for 30 minutes, run on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and ride my stationary bike for 30 minutes. I read 14 chapters in my Bible, memorize verses for 30 minutes, and read 20 pages in whatever book I am reading. I listen to a podcast while I am on the treadmill and I do my reading while riding the stationary bike. I usually manage the schedule fine every 3 months when this prayer event rolls around, but last night our daughter Sally and their 3 kids flew in from Hawaii where they live, so I didn’t get to bed until 2:00 pm. Today I am dragging around feeling like an old man. I did get in about a 30 minute nap at noon so I can be coherent today when I pray. Even though I am feeling very weary today, I work hard at my self-talk so I am rejoicing over the full schedule, the opportunity to pray a lot with people that I care about, and to spend time with my kids that I don’t see much. The worst thing would be to feel sorry for myself or be grumpy to others because of being tired. The cool thing about me is that I can take 5 minute little cat naps all day long whenever it is convenient, all I have to do is close my eyes and I am asleep, it is a gift! I remind myself that God answered Daniel’s prayer in the Old Testament in his “extreme weariness”. It seems to be a law of God that our service to Him on behalf of others is effective and bears fruit in direct proportion to the cost to ourselves. Easy and convenient service, whether it is praying, giving or serving has minimal results, but that which takes great sacrifice like Daniels “extreme weariness praying” results in significant fruit. I like the thought that I am bearing much fruit for God and for others, and the price that I am paying for just five days of little sleep seems more than worth it.

There is so much in life that isn’t just or fair. One of the earliest statements that everyone of our 8 kids said, and then said often was, ” That’s not fair”! It could have been as simple as the portion of food they received compared to a siblings or that they had to bring in fire wood twice in a row, but the point being that being treated fairly was important to them. When Patty and I go shopping for Christmas presents for 27 grandkids she insists that the gifts are within one dollar of each other, otherwise they will feel like they are being treated unfairly. When I travel to Sierra Leone, West Africa where we have started churches, schools, an orphanage, well drilling projects, a Bible College, and businesses for jobs I see so much injustice, but I can’t do much about most of it. In the news there is a huge overdose of information on justice and injustice, but very few are discussing it from a perspective of compassion.

So the Biblical perspective for me and what we attempted to teach our kids as they grew up was, “I will do everything in my power to treat others with fairness and influence the culture of justice and injustice around me to the degree that I can, but I will not be concerned about whether I am being treated fairly by others or not, I will just trust the Lord to be my defender.”

My personal response and effort to influence justice where I see injustice is in my praying that I do;

Luke 18:1& 8 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart……..now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

injustice that has happened in life will be taken care of by the “King of Kings” when every person will stand before His throne and give an account of their life.

Jefferson Baptist Church’s “Five Days of Prayer” started this morning at 5:00 am. We will pray from 5:00 to 10:00 am every morning this week, Monday through Friday. We will also pray from 5:00 to 10:00 pm every evening this week with a “Communion Service” happening on Friday evening at 7:00 pm. We will have dinner served every evening at 6:00 pm so you can come right from work if you like. In this particular “Five Days of Prayer” we are focusing on our missions ministry. We have a major ministry in Sierra Leone having planted more than 20 churches, each church also having a school that is free, we have started a Bible College/Seminary to train pastors for future church plants, our goal is 100 churches and schools started by 2040, we have started several well drilling ministries with over 300 wells drilled so far. We also have 2 large schools in Liberia and we support missionaries in another dozen countries. 30 years ago our missions ministry was very small with not much going on, and now it is huge and growing rapidly. The reason is because of our emphasis on prayer. God’s commission to the church is to make disciples in every nation and when we pray hard, give sacrificially, and go He will powerfully bless.

I am at most of the prayer times every day, and I can’t really put into words the great sense of joy, peace, and security that comes into my soul during these prayer times. To say that I have a spiritual experience during these 5 days of prayer would be an understatement. I have grown in my faith in the power of pray a great deal, and the greater my faith grows the more motivated I am to pray, which in turn brings this inner sense that God is well pleased with my life.

We actually start praying 15 minutes after the hour and take a break of 15 minutes at the top of each hour. During this time people come and go, get coffee, eat snacks and visit. Many people choose not to pray out loud but to listen to those who do pray out loud and agree with their prayer in their heart.

God knows what I am thinking, he is the only one who does besides myself.

Matthew 9:4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?

I have identified several areas of wrong thinking which if not conquered will lead to acting or behaving the way I think.

-Immoral thinking is bad, and Jesus said that mentally lusting after a woman not my wife was as bad as actually committing the act.

-Angry thinking which I used to do a lot of, is where I think about an offense done to me over and over and me getting more uptight about it on each cycle of thinking.

-Self pity thinking is when I think about a bad situation I am in over and over again until I start whining and complaining about my predicament to anybody who will listen and feel sorry for me.

-Bitter thinking is very similar to angry thinking, I meditate about a wrong done to me until it becomes such a big deal in my head that don’t even want to talk to the person who was the perpetrator.

-Judgmental, and critical thinking is when I think very negatively about a person’s performance, accomplishments, appearance, and behavior.

-prideful thinking is when I compete with people in my head and always come out the winner.

-Covetous and discontent thinking is when I mentally complain to myself that I need more money and stuff, and better and nicer stuff.

Leaving any of those thoughts in my mind unchecked will make me a bitter, sad, miserable, grouchy, and unproductive person. The way I conquer any of those thought patterns is by memorizing key passages from the Bible that correspond to each of the negative thought patterns and choosing to set my mind on those verses when I have a wrong thought. An example is when I have an immoral thought I quickly start thinking about 2 Timothy 2:20 where Paul tells Timothy, “If a man cleansed himself from sexual immorality he will be useful to God for every good work”, that is what I want more than anything. Replacing wrong, selfish, worldly, and demonic thinking with Bible verses that I have memorized is a very powerful way to control my thinking.