In my last Blog, I wrote, “Sometimes you have to hold one truth in one hand, and an opposing truth in the other hand, and hold them both in tension without messing up either one.” I wrote about two truths: man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty. Some people thought I was messing with the sovereignty of God. I believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, but I also believe that every believer will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and be held accountable for what they have done or not done with their life, and that they will not be able to use their belief in God’s sovereignty as an excuse for doing little with their life. I can hold two truths that seem to oppose each other without messing up either one. Many people cannot; they think that if they believe one doctrine is valid, they must deny the other. Most believers don’t pray much because they believe that God, in His sovereignty, will do what He will do, and our prayers don’t change anything. That apathy to prayer resulted from being unable to hold two doctrines in balance without messing up either one. Many solid believers don’t witness because God will save who He will, and what we do doesn’t change anything. There are a lot of people who are solid believers who go to church faithfully but bear very little fruit for God. I have heard words from many like them: “God is God, He is in charge, He is going to accomplish all His good will, and He doesn’t need us.”
In all my years of Pastoring, I have never met a person who prays a lot, witnesses every chance he gets, and works like a dog to change his world because he thinks God is not in control, is doing nothing, and has left everything up to us. Every solid servant of Christ I know believes in the God of the Bible, and that belief motivates them to action, not to apathy.

I often wonder about things I have been taught as I grew up using the standard Baptist theology. One area is God’s omniscience, His knowing everything, even before it happens. I wonder if that is a general statement with some wiggle room or absolute in every detail. An example is God’s command to Abraham to offer his son Issac as an offering.
Genesis 22:12 God said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Did God not know for sure what Abraham would do? I have read all the explanations on what it must really mean in light of God’s omniscience, but they all seem like educated guesses shaped by the firm belief that God is totally omniscient. I do believe that He is all-knowing, and I feel a bit heretical, even wondering about it. But I hate to push that phrase,”now I know that you fear God,” into meaning something that it doesn’t say with a literal reading of the passage.
But another example close to Christmas is Jesus becoming flesh in every way. Hebrews 4:15 says, “ we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” That verse seems to be saying Jesus can now sympathize with us because He has experienced all that we have experienced, but He couldn’t quite understand us until He experienced it. It seems perfectly logical that even God would not fully understand what a human feels or needs until He experiences what we experience. It makes Jesus emptying Himself of all He was as God and being made in the likeness of man even more amazing. But it certainly infringes on the doctrine of God’s omniscience. Again, I have read all the explanations of Hebrews 4:15 to make it line up with the standard doctrinal view of who God is and His attributes, and again they seem more like logical reasoning than solid Biblical proof.
My favorite Theology professor when I was in Seminary would often say, “Sometimes you have to hold one truth in one hand, and an opposing truth in the other hand, and hold them both in tension without messing up either one.” I will try and hold them both gently until I get to heaven and see how they fit together.

When I was younger, the question was, “Is it right or wrong?” I wanted to obey the Lord and do what he had commanded me to do. Now, at my life stage, the question is, “Is it wise or foolish?” In the sense of right or wrong, many things would be okay but not very wise. An important area for me is how I spend my time. Another area close to managing time is how I use my energy; it is a limited commodity in my life. Another one is how we spend our money. There is a lot of leeway and freedom in those areas if we don’t care how much we accomplish with our life that has eternal value. The older I get, the more that seems to matter to me; I think that is because the time I have left to do something that matters is running out, so I need to use it well.

I got to thinking the other day as I was reading the book of 2nd Timothy and remembered that this was Paul’s last letter and that he wrote it from prison. He didn’t have a cell phone, an iPad, computer games, YouTube videos, not much of anything. I would guess that the things he had to choose between to manage his time well were small. I really wouldn’t want to be in prison like Paul was, but there is something in me that makes me envious of that simple life when it comes to making wise choices.

Often, the choosing isn’t figuring out what is wiser—I usually already know that. It is the willingness to do the harder thing, which is usually the wiser thing, and the self-control to do what my flesh doesn’t necessarily want to do.

Sometimes, I just want to say, “Awe, the heck with it! As long as it doesn’t make someone mad, I will just do what is easy and enjoyable.” But, I guess, at that point, we have moved beyond what is wise to what is mature, and I should be there at 76!

I have been reviewing the goals I wrote in October for this next year. I have taken several off and added some. One of the goals I removed was putting in a quarter-acre fishpond on our place and stocking it with largemouth bass. I have made this goal every year for the past 20 years, so I guess it is time to admit that it isn’t going to happen. It would be a fun goal to accomplish and to enjoy for years, but time and money have been barriers that have kept it from happening. I replaced it with fishing at Diamond Lake at least twice this next year. Now, that one will happen for sure.

Planning my life and setting goals reminds me of those robot vacuum cleaners. They take off across the room, vacuuming as they go until they hit something, and then reverse and go in a different direction. After going back and forth and around and around, they have covered the entire floor.

About a third of my goals don’t get accomplished every year, so I usually roll them over to the following year, but often, I chuck them. I chuck them because I have lost interest in accomplishing them or decide it isn’t possible with the years, money, and energy I have left.

There is a balance between being realistic and wimpy and giving up. I don’t quit on goals without a lot of thought about benefits, cost, and effort. One of the overriding issues in my goals is managing our income wisely and not going into debt, so many of my goals get shelved because of cost and our budget restrictions. More and more of our money goes into travel expenses to visit our kids and grandkids. Those goals make both Patty and me very happy.

We have a daughter, her husband, and three grandkids in Oahu, a daughter and husband and six grandkids in Fairbanks, Alaska, a daughter, husband, and three grandkids in Washington State, and a son, wife, and four grandkids in Idaho. The other four kids and families are close. Then there are birthdays for 28 grandkids, Christmas, extra groceries, and helping with emergencies and additional expenses they might have.

I don’t feel sad that some of my crazy goals get replaced by family goals; that is the reward for having eight kids.

Tonight, I was reading about Special services JBC has had over the last 20 years. We have had Concerts, dramas, and other events, and it was fun reading about each of the services. It reminded me again how faithful God has been in guiding me over the years into His perfect will and plan for my life. It was a great confidence builder to read some of the history of JBC and my life and to know that the rest of my life is just as much under His control as the past was so that I can look forward to some great days of ministry ahead of me, though they will be different.

I enjoy riding rollercoasters. When we went to various theme parks in years past, I usually challenged the kids with us to a rollercoaster ride-off; the last one to get sick won. I always won. Once, I was on the world’s largest wooden roller coaster in Texas with my son Seth. They had a camera on the route that took a picture of you, and you could look at it after you got off and buy it if you wanted. When I looked at mine, it looked terrible; it looked like I was terrified out of my wits. So we got back on, and I kept my eye out for the camera. I saw it and smiled like I was having the time of my life; I bought that one.

Even though roller coasters can be scary, they are on a track, so enjoy the ride. Life has ups and downs, but it is on a track, so enjoy the ride.

Tonight, I was reading the memories that Facebook periodically brings up, and they were about Christmas services at JBC five years ago, ten years ago, and fifteen years ago. It was fun reading about what I preached and what the services were about. It reminded me again how faithful God has been in guiding me over the years into His perfect will and plan for my life. It was a great confidence builder to read the history of my life and to know that the rest of my life is just as much under His control as the past was so that I can look forward to some great days of ministry ahead of me.

I enjoy riding rollercoasters. When we went to various theme parks in years past, I usually challenged the kids with us to a rollercoaster ride-off; the last one to get sick won. I always won. Once, I was on the world’s largest wooden roller coaster in Texas with my son Seth. They had a camera on the route that took a picture of you, and you could look at it after you got off and buy it if you wanted. When I looked at mine, it looked terrible; it looked like I was terrified out of my wits. So we got back on, and I kept my eye out for the camera. I saw it and smiled like I was having the time of my life; I bought that one.

Even though roller coasters can be scary, they are on a track, so enjoy the ride. Life has ups and downs, but it is on a track, so enjoy the ride.

When I was a kid, I hated sleeping and tried to stay up as late as I could. There was so much to do. When I got into High School and College, there was even more to do, and sleep would eat up so much time. When I started farming, I felt confident I could function fine on six hours of sleep. When I began Pastoring and needed to work on the side to pay all the bills and help parent eight kids, I rarely got more than five hours of sleep each night. It went that way through much of my life. I would sleep in on Mondays and felt I got caught up. When I was up in Alaska fishing each summer, I hated to miss fishing time because of sleep. I would fall asleep in my chair in the cabin with my waders on, and after two or three hours, I was back in the river. Then I hit 70 years of age. Now I love sleeping. It feels so good in my nice, warm bed. My joints and muscles don’t ache, and I never worry, fret, or have bad dreams. If I don’t get at least eight hours of sound sleep now, I feel like the whole world is off its axis. I like it when I can get nine or even an occasional ten hours of sleep, now that is a blessing from God. But occasionally, I feel guilty for sleeping so much, especially when reading some Bible Proverbs.

Proverbs 19:15 Laziness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle man will suffer hunger.
Proverbs 20:13 Do not love sleep, or you will become poor;
Proverbs 24:33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, then your poverty will come as a robber and your want like an armed man.

When it comes to fishing or hunting or some other special events I can revert back to my old self and can blast away on a few hours of sleep, but not for to many days. Then I like to get back to my new standard of nine hours of deep, restful sleep. My, oh my, how good it feels. 

I have started looking at my indulgence in sleep now as a blessing from God, a reward for all those years of little sleep serving Him. That is what heaven will be, a rest from the struggles of this life. Life is good and heaven will be so much better. 

When I was in grade school, I was always evaluating what people said to me or didn’t say, how they looked at me, or whether they appeared to ignore me. What did they think of me? Did they like me? Did they hate me? Did they even notice me?

Then, when I got into High School, I think my curiosity about what people thought of me ramped up to fretting and worrying about my self-image. College was even worse until I met Patty, and then my fretting about whether others liked me was focused only on her. That old image of a guy pulling pedals off a flower saying, “She loves me, she loves me not; not until the last pedal was pulled off did I know the answer, but then I would do it again. Just about every time I tried another flower, the answer would be different. Now, that was a stupid game. Not until we were engaged did I know for sure that I was the only guy in her life and that she loved me. I gained a great freedom from worrying about what anybody thought of me after that; only one person mattered.

When I started pastoring, I again started with questions about whether people liked me, liked my sermons, or thought I was a good pastor. I knew that kind of thinking was unhealthy and that I needed to get control of it, but I struggled with it for years.

In my 14th year of pastoring, I shared my struggles with a former pastor with whom I met monthly for mentoring and counsel. We usually talked about preaching, leadership, and how to grow a church. I think this was the first time we talked about me. He gave me two pieces of advice that significantly impacted my struggle with self-image. The first was to worry only about what Jesus thought of what I was doing, whether I was faithful, responsible, and diligent. 2 Corinthians 5:9 became a memory verse I meditated on day and night, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

The second thing he counseled me to do was honor, appreciate, and love people unconditionally. He said I needed to forgive anybody for anything and that if I ever felt like someone was treating me poorly or was critical of me, I should double my efforts with them in showing honor. The Biblical principle of “What you sow, is what you reap” was very accurate.

For most of my ministry life, I have lived free from inner turmoil and from worrying about what people might think of me. I still fret a little about what Patty thinks of me, but she always tells me, and then life is good again.

I discovered a couple of years ago that I didn’t have Parkinson’s, but I had Parkinson’s symptoms caused by food allergies. I figured out what foods were causing muscle rigidity, muscle spasms, and tremors, and I quit eating them. What do you know, a new man! The main culprits were glutton and sugar. Now that I am paying much closer attention to what I am eating, I am noticing that a couple of other minor physical and health problems I have had for much of my life are also probably caused by food allergies. I periodically get nauseous, get blown up with gas, and have diarrhea. It doesn’t last long, but it is always inconvenient. I have been doing detective work, and I think I am getting it zeroed down to the probable culprits. I wonder how many other people have problems because of certain foods that they eat that they are not aware of. My issues were minor when I was younger but got progressively worse as I got older. I am thankful that I discovered what was causing my problems.

Many of the problems we have in our lives are caused by our violation of God’s fundamental principles and laws. Just as the foods we eat have consequences for our health, so do the things we bring into our minds through our eyes and ears. A significant part of the problem is that our standard of what is healthy or unhealthy has changed a lot over the years. Worldliness is a significant cause of loss of blessing from God, and the reason worldliness becomes a problem is because of carelessness; it is no big deal; a little won’t hurt. I don’t say that anymore regarding certain foods. A little bit matters a lot.

Let’s look at the flip side of life’s trials: being blessed. Like trials, we can be blessed a lot, a little bit, or not at all. There are certain truths about being blessed. Blessings come into our lives because God caused them, not by accident or coincidence. God’s blessings are not arbitrary or random. They come into our lives as a reward from God for right living and are intended by God to motivate us to obey Him and live for Him. There are over a hundred verses on being blessed by God in the Bible, and they all are conditional.

James 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

John 13:17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Luke 11:28 But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear and obey the word of God.”

Some don’t make clear distinctions between redemption and sanctification in their writing or teaching. Our salvation from hell to heaven is by grace. No works are required; we are not worthy of the forgiveness of our sins and adoption into the family of God. But now that we are children of God, He treats us as sons and daughters and is always working to make us mature and grown up like Jesus in character. For growth to happen, we must cooperate, choose, and act in specific ways. God gives us strength, but we must still make the choices and make the effort. He motivates us to do the right things by blessing us or not.

There are different kinds of blessings in life. There is the physical blessing you get for faithfully changing the oil in your car, good health when you eat right and exercise, and financial blessings when you follow good financial principles. Probably the greatest blessings in life are joy, peace, strength, wisdom, healthy relationships with people and with God, and accomplishing something with your life that really matters. The conditions set forth by God to experience those last seven blessings are clearly spelled out in the Bible.

A major goal of my teaching and preaching ministry is to show what we need to do to be blessed by God. The number one discipline to be blessed by God is to read the Bible, the Word of God, seeking Him and seeking His will for our lives. There are dozens of clear blessings for those who love and read the Bible faithfully, just in Psalms 119.

Psalms 119:165 Those who love Your law have great peace,
And nothing causes them to stumble.

As I said a couple blogs ago, one of the worst things we can do is to be judgmental of others about their apparent blessings or trials in life. To do that is a very good way to lose blessings and to experience some discipline from the Lord.

You choose; blessings from God or trials.