Today is the 12th and my taxes are supposed to be mailed in 3 days and I haven’t started yet. I have a goal to exercise 90 minutes each day. I didn’t exercise at all yesterday and I am sitting in my chair this evening telling myself I am going to get up and do it any minute now, but still I sit. I don’t think anything makes me more disgusted with myself than putting off unpleasant tasks when I know they need to get done. My desire is that I would be strong, that I would do what is right, what is responsible, what is important, and not allow my own flesh to control me. I have stretches where everything clicks and I am in a groove doing everything that I want in a timely way. But then for some reason I will get tired, discouraged, depressed and then I lapse into “nothingness”!Then I work at getting back into the groove, I finally get there and then I relapse again. I do know that the down times are way shorter than they used to be and the length of time between the relapses is getting longer. Change and growth is slow and gradual. I will persevere asking the Lord for His strength everyday, and I will press on to maturity.

In John chapter 10 it says that Jesus is the good shepherd, and that He cares for us and knows our name. I work at knowing the name of every person who has started attending JBC, but I often forget. In fact sometimes I forget that I have even talked to them at all. I don’t think I impress them much. Jesus knows my name and He knows me intimately.

We rented a dumpster and filled it up today with junk. We got one last year and filled it up as well. I will rent one next year and probably fill it up. It is a big dumpster. Where does all that junk come from. Almost all of it is stuff we bought in the past and it quiT working or broke. The word junk is a good discription of what we are filling up the dumpser with. As I was taking a break from filling up the dumpster I thought about the word junk. The stuff we were throwing into the dumpster we bought at one point with no thought of it becoming junk someday. Why had it become junk? junk, stuff that is worthless, of no use, broken, discarded. I am not junk and I never will be. God considers me worth a lot and He loves me and He will for all of eternity. I will not become useless to Him, or broken or simply unwanted.

I want to set up a little “nursery group” of fishes so I can have baby Tilapia to replace the ones we eat. According to the instructions I have, 5 female fish and one male fish in a 55 gallon aquarium is the perfect scenario for having lots of new baby fish. Well I set this up a couple of weeks ago and still no babies so I rechecked and discovered that I had 6 male fish, won’t work that way, no babies. So I went back to the big tank and pumped most of the water out and netted and checked, netted and checked, whooooeeee it is not an easy thing “sexing” fish. So I think I have it right this time. If no babies have arrived in a couple of weeks I will check again. One thing about it as the fish get bigger it is easier to see the difference. One of the problems is that they wiggle around so much it is really hard to see!! One of the things that tipped me off besides no babies is that the six fish were fighting all the time and that wasn’t supposed to happen with 5 female fish and one male, there was supposed to be a lot of loving!! I had an appointment at my office I was late for so I quickly left and once there I remembered that I had left the water running in the big tank of fish. Tilapia don’t live long in water colder than 60 degrees and our well water is a shade over 50 degrees, yikes I was going to kill all my fish!! I called home and got Sherri to shut off the water. Whooeee that was close! 15 minutes later I remembered that I had forgotten to shut off the valve that drained water out of the tank. Oh no, my fish were probably gasping flopping around with no water. I was going to kill them for sure. Called home again and explained where the valve was and how to shut it off. When I got home I was so relieved to see all my fish swimming around in 6 inches of water doing quite well.

God appeared to Solomon and asked him what he wanted God to do for him. If God woke me up and asked that question what would I say? If He woke you up and asked that question what would you say? When Jesus asked the blind man what he wanted Jesus to do for him, he didn’t hesitate, “I want to regain my sight” and Jesus responded that his faith was great. What do I want?, really want! The intensity of my wanting, the size of my wanting, the focus and clarity of my wanting determines what I accomplish with my life. The person that wants the most prays the most, the person who wants the most works the hardest, the person who wants the most sacrifices the most, the person who wants the most gives the most, the person who wants the most thinks and plans with great intensity. But if you want a lot you do experience disappointment more than the person who wants and hopes for very little. Disappointment is painful so many down size their wants to avoid disappointment to the point that become totally content with mediocrity and little accomplishment.

I got invited to speak at a Parkinson’s support group today and tell them my story of bicycling across the U.S. I started my presentation by saying, “I hate riding a bicycle”. That got their attention. I went on to say that the only reason I ride is because I want the next 10 years of my life and ministry to be more productive than the first 35 all put together. The only way I will be able to last is by exercising a lot. It is that desire that motivates me to get up out of my chair in the evenings when I am super tired and have already got stiff and the last thing I want to do is get up and ride my stationary bike. So I keep that dream and desire in front of me all day long and the more I meditate on it the more motivated I become. It is sort of like throwing gas on the fire. I am becoming an expert at motivating myself which is self leadership. One fine teacher on leadership said that no one can lead others until he first learns to lead himslf.

Had some good friends over tonight and we watched the “Duke vs Wisconsin” men’s National Basketball Championship game. The game was very good and very exciting right up to the end. I was the only person rooting for Duke in our house, but we showed them😄 so much fun barbecueing Polish dogs, eating lots of chips and salsa, drinking several cans of diet root beer, and of course several big bowls of ice cream to wash it all down. One of the major blessings from God is good friends that are fun to spend time with, and also who pray faithfully for me. God the Father, and the Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have always existed together as One, as family, as community. We have been created by them and like them. We were created to live in family, community, together with others that we love and who love us. When we are living our lives in the midst of strong relationships we are fulfilled and happy. Those who are tremendously fulfilled and overflowing with joy and happiness that comes from healthy relationships that are ever growing in unity and love, are not there by accident. They know how important close friends are to their own life and they seek those kinds of relationships more than buried treasure and they pay the price and make the personal sacrifice to make them work. They understand the rules of life such as, “give and it will be given to you”, ” treat others the way you want to be treated”, ” forgive others quickly and thoroughly so they will forgive you”, ” do not judge and you will not be judged”, blessed are the merciful, they will recieve mercy”, “never ever get angry at others, not even a little bit”. Those who know the basic rules of life that God made and play by them win the championship that counts.

Had a great time today with a bunch of family gathered together to eat a lot of food and fellowship in honor of what Jesus, God’s Son did for us in paying the price of our sin so we could live forever with Him in heaven. That is a great reason to have a party together. One of the first things we will do in heaven is have a party or feast together and the Bible says that Jesus will wait on us and serve us when we get there. That seems so strange that the infinite God, creator of heaven and earth would wait on us demonstrating to us His delight in us. I think a lot about heaven now and what it will look like, feel like, what my first impressions will be, what I will remember from this life and on and on.

We had the 3rd and 4th showing of “Beauty and the Beast” today, at 3 pm and 7 pm. The whole production has been amazing in the quality of acting, singing, dancing, and the costumes. The 4th time I sat through the entire performance was even better than the first three. There is a very high sense of “feeling happy” at the conclusion of each performance. I feel very proud of our church for such a professional performance each showing and blessing so many who have come with a special gift of joy for this Easter season. The Bible compares the church to a body when it is functioning together in unity and love in that each part works together with all the other body parts resulting in good health. JBC demonstrated a great deal of unity in this production. There was not only the actors, singers, sound techs, stage crew, but also all those who made cookies and coffee, who parked cars, took care of little kids, greeted and welcomed, prayed during the “five Days of Prayer” for the event, and all those who invited friends and family to come. Very few in our church were uninvolved and God blessed as a result.

We had a Jefferson area community Good Friday service tonight with 6 churches represented. We celebrated Communion together and then 6 different Pastors each preached a 5 minute sermon, at least that was the goal😄. It would have been a modern day miracle had that actually happened, though my wife said that I was right on the money 5 minutes. Must have been why I got so many compliments on my sermon afterward, it was the shortest! It was a very special evening with such a beautiful display of unity between the pastors and churches. We really do enjoy each other’s fellowship and company and sincerely pray for each other’s success. I know that God was especially pleased with the unity displayed tonight and He promises to pour out His blessing on such unity. I pro-actively work at doing every thing I can to make the unity stronger because I know it is pleasing to the Lord and because it is the right thing to do and because I would like to see God pour out more and more of His blessing on this geographical area so that evil is pushed out and His Word spreads rapidly and many become fully devoted followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.