Moral purity is a very big deal to God. Everything that is important to God the devil attacks and works at making it unimportant to the world. He has been very successful in making moral purity a joke in our culture. Another thing that the devil has successfully removed out of our thinking is the “fear of the Lord”. I am asked all the time what the “fear of the Lord ” is, and my response is ” recognizing that the title of God, “God is judge” is just as important as “God is love”. Hebrews 10:10 says, “the Lord will judge his people, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God”. Ephesians 5:5 says ” this you know with certainty, that no immoral  or impure person has an inheritance in the Kingdom of God”.  I can’t imagine what it would feel like to get to the end of your life and hear God say, “depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you”. Hebrews 10:29 says, “How much severe punishment do,you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified , and has insulted the spirit of grace”. To insult the spirit of grace is to think that we can live how we want because God is a God of love and will wink at our immorality.

I like to learn new skills. This year I am going to learn how to catch Kokanee, and how to weld. I make a goal to learn at least one new skill each year and sometimes two. Physical skills are relatively easy because they are so measurable and observable so progress is simple to measure. Behavioral skills are much more difficult, especially as an adult. Learning how to be a good and loving husband, learning how to be a good parent, learning how to be patient and never get angry or even a little bit irritated, and the list goes on.  Most make zero attempt at learning a new behavioral skill or strength because it is to hard. I pick one area every year to work on that I am weak in. This year it is to eliminate all “trash” talking, or as my wife calls it, “teasing”.  I have justified it over the years as “what guys do”. Several of my friends never say anything negative, critical, they never tease, or make fun of anybody that I have ever heard, and they are very enjoyable to spend time with.  So far my progress has been very slow,but I have made some. I have been a “trash talker” for a lot of years so I might have to make it a two year project. A behavioral skill I took on several years ago was “never to worry” not even a little bit no matter how big the crisis or problem. I can honestly say that I have that skill nearly perfected. It has been a long time since I have fretted, gotten uptight, been anxious, or gotten stressed about anything. It is a command in the Bible “not to be anxious” so it is obviously possible and it is one that God will give a great deal of help in. I am talking about how to be worry free in my talk at “Men’s Breakfast” at JBC Saturday morning at 7 am.  It is a great time and all the bacon you can eat.

One of the The most emphasized commands in the Bible repeated over and over is to honor our mother and father. This Sunday is Mother’s Day to help remind us to honor our mothers. My Mom, Bernice Duke, has been a super mom. I am a pastor of a great church, and my personal walk and love for God that brought me into ministry was a result of the influence of my Mom over the years. I don’t remember hardly ever not going to church, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Summer Bible Camp because of Mom’s encouragement. Many of the character strengths that I have came because of Mom’s example. I just finished bicycling 3,000 miles to the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. So many said to me when we got back home, “you made it, you didn’t quit”. I nod my head and smile and say “Yep, I made it”, but I think to myself,  “quitting never entered my mind”, and the reason is because my Mom never quit what she started and she was always encouraging us to keep at what we were doing and not quit, “We could do it”!  As I review my life and think abound who I am I know that I am a product of the people God sovereignly put into my life, and by far  the most influential person in my life spiritually was my Mom.

God is perfectly organized and His creation is as well, but most of us are not naturally organized at all. The purpose of organizing our life is so that the important things in our life get done well, and that we accomplish as much as is possible with our life. I am working at organizing my life, and becoming a person that does the high priority things faithfully and successfully. Managing time is important, but an aspect of being organized that I need to work on most is organizing my surroundings. Having a system of storing things and being disciplined to put things where they belong so it doesn’t take half a day to find a tool. Getting rid of clutter and unimportant things that tend to complicate and hide that which is needed and important. In our Christian life there are a few really important things like reading the Bible, praying, worship, but often they don’t get done because our life is so full of stuff, choices, activities, and events. An organized person simplifies his life so the important stuff gets done. I am determined to do that.

I have a prayer App on my IPad And I have close to 2,000 people in it that I pray for. The App allows me to add pictures of people to help me remember them better. I collect many of my pictures from Facebook, others I take when around you  with my IPhone.  I record information about each person as I become aware of it so I can pray with insight. I try to get through every person each week. It takes me about an hour each day to make that happen.  It is funny how many think when they hear about my praying how hard this must be. It really isn’t because my faith in the power to change people through my prayers has grown so much that I feel a special sense of priviledge to be able to influence so many for good.

Working on my 1949 Ford pickup today when I got home from my office. I put a power steering unit in it out of a Toyota 4 runner and a power steering pump from a 72 Ford Mustang. I am having trouble getting the pump lined up square with the other pulleys of which there are three.  I am always working on something on it, after all it is 67 years old.  I am 67 years old as well, and I am always working on me. One would think that by this time I would be close to perfect😀 Many people stop working on themselves and stop growing and changing. They either don’t care, it takes to must effort or they are so focused on all the flaws of others they hardly notice their own flaws. Jesus said, “blessed is he who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, he will be satisfied”. I crave holiness in my own life, but I mess up regularly anyway.  I try not to ignore it or justify it,  excuse it,  or blame others, but to own it, confess it to the Lord, reconcile with any people that I have hurt, ask for His strength to do better next time and move on.

Worked in my office at the church all day today. Most of the time I was working on my sermon for this weekend.  I enjoy very much studying the Bible and trying to figure out how to make it clearly understood to anybody. When Jesus taught the Word to two disciples after the resurrection they responded by saying that their hearts burned within them while He explained the Bible to them. I want to teach like that. Jesus said that because He was going back to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit to us that we would be capable of doing greater works then He Himself did. I want to do that. I don’t care about walking on water I just want to preach and teach the Bible so that it is alive and sharper than a sword and changes people’s lives. I pray for that everyday.

The airplane landed at 9:30 am in Portland and our daughter Sherri was there to pick us up. When we got home I walked around and checked everything out and went down to the church and went through emails, there were over 3,000 of them, and mail, and talked to some staff. Then I sat down a made a to do list. I added to it, then added to it some more, then I had so many things on it I had to rewrite it putting the most important things on the top.  Everything seemed to go good at home and at church while I was gone, in fact it seemed like it went even better than when I was home😊  Sitting in my recliner writing this, and home seems so nice. At times like this I get so full of thankfulness to God for my life. I have such a blessed life from God. I have so many things to do that have purpose and value, I have so many challenges to overcome and conquer. I have so many adventures lined up to experience. I have so many people in my life who love me and that I love and enjoy being with. My wak with God is so meaningful and fulfilling. Life is good. Thank You Lord.

Patty and are sitting in the Jacksoville, Florida airport.  We had to be out of the motel by 11 am and our flight leaves at 7 pm so we are doing a lot of sitting. We get to Dallas, Texas airport at 9 pm and get on the plane to Portland at 7 am, so again about 10 hours of sitting. The tickets were cheap😀 Lots of people watching in airports, and it is always interesting, often, funny, and many times sort of a mystery why people act the way they do. People’s behavior is driven by their desires, dreams, past experiences, the training they received growing up, fears, faith etc. There are many nice, polite, and gracious people, but as you know there are a lot of very rude, impatient, selfish and childish people in the world, and it seems that a bunch are in the airport today.  As I sit and watch and listen thinking about the worth and value of people I wonder what God thinks and feels. I wonder where most of them will be after they die, I wonder what my responsibility is in the whole scheme of things.

The Bible says to “run the race with endurance that God had set before us”, in another passage it says, “in due time you will reap or succeed if you don’t quit”, and again, “if we put our hand to the plow and then quit God has no pleasure in us”,  and finally the Apostle Paul says ” I finished the race”. Endurance is a big deal to God and is a major key to growing in character and accomplishing anything of worth. On this bicycle trip every day was very hard and the thought “I would like to quit” popped into my head everyday, often every hour. Continuing to get on the bike every day was a choice.  Jesus said, ” the gate is narrow and the way hard that leads to life and there are few who choose it”. In many people the desire for ease and comfort is stronger than the desire for success, growth, and accomplishment. Endurance is a mental thing. Our flesh is lazy, driven to seek comfort, and will prompt thoughts in our brain to choose the easy way. Conquering those thoughts with determination, commitment, and resolute pursuit of our goals is key. A bicycle trip across the nation isn’t really that big of a deal, but a marriage is, our walk with God is, our faithful reading of the Bible is, our commitment to a ministry is, our devotion to prayer is, and people quit those things all the time.