Had a poker tournament tonight. $20 buy in and we played until one person was left and they won a Green Mountain grill. I have played poker twice in my life but last week I down loaded a poker game on my IPad and practiced. I was doing pretty good until it got to be 10 pm and then I bet all my chips on nothing. My big bluff didn’t work, and now I am home. I will find out tomorrow who won the grill. Maybe I can borrow it. The evening was a lot of fun with great fellowship and lots of good snacks. One of the great blessings in life for me is good friends who I enjoy being around, and who are “energy givers” to me. I have gotten good at reading my emotional gas tank, and when it feels like I am down to a quarter full I have have also gotten good at knowing how to fill it up, and an enjoyable evening like tonight is very effective. Tomorrow is Saturday and I will speak at a men’s event at another church, then I will teach my “Men’s Leadership” class, and then our Saturday evening service. Sunday I will preach at the 9 and 11 am services so it is great to go to bed tonight knowing that I am fully energized and ready for a great weekend. Who would have thought that a poker tournament would help me preach better.😄

I just finished a book entitled “The Power of Habits”. The book says that about 40% of everything that we do is not really a decision because we do it automatically as a learned habit. The basic premis of the book is that habits can be changed if we know how. I really like understanding better how I can successfully change and grow in my character. Knowing how habits work and how to successfully change them is great self management.

At the annual NW annual meetings for our denomination there were several hundred pastors most whom I know, and enjoy visiting with about pastoring and other things that are hobbies, and interests. In conversations with a number of them they were asking about my bicycle trip across the nation to Portland, Maine this past summer. In the course of conversation I usually mentioned that I was probably going on another trip in a year across the Southern part of the US instead of the Northern part. A number of the guys said they would really like to do something like that before they died. I encouraged them to consider it, that it was a great adventure. The ones who are most serious are the ones who are retiring this next year. That would be fun going with a number of old Baptist preachers. We would probably do a lot of moaning and groaning to each other at night as we set up our tents and cook dinner. One pastor asked what we would do if he gave out and couldn’t go any more. I said that we could either shoot him and put him out of his misery or put he and his bike on a bus back to home, his choice. Everyone wants to do something wild and reckless that is a major challenge for them at least once in their life.

Every year for 38 years I have come to the annual North West Conservative Baptist Association meetings. They used to be held in many different places all over the North West but for the last 4 or 5 years they have been at Seaside, Oregon. In the early years of ministry I came because I felt it was my duty to come because of the help the Association gave to us financially when we were a small church. But then I started coming because of the good friends I had made with other pastors who I only saw a couple times each year and the annual meetings being one of them. Tonight I hung out with a group after the regular meetings were over until 11 pm. I have some really good friends who I am very close with in our church, but there is something special about “pastor” friends even if I only see them a couple times a year. Pastors have a unique kind of job with unique pressures and it creates a special kind of bonding between us. Some of my friends that I haven’t seen since last year have gotten Cancer and aren’t doing well at all. One of them has been so ravaged by chemo that he didn’t recognize or remember me. Another was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but is doing much worse than I am. Life is sort of funny how it just keeps marching on and things change. Conversations with my friends that are getting old, sick, retiring are all ended with the same comment. I sure hope Jesus comes back soon. Me to. I can’t wait for my new body!

I am at Seaside this week at the annual meeting for the pastors and staff in our denomination. Every year that we have this event they bring in a really good Bible teacher. This year they have Bruce Ware who is a seminary professor. He was a very good teacher and I learned a lot. As I sat listening to him this evening I recognized how fun it is to learn. There is just something very special for me in listening, and learning new information, and then putting it into practice. We were created by God to learn more an more and grow as a result of our new wisdom. The main barrier to my learning and growing from others is my pride when I think that I have learned it all. I have so much to learn. Please help me Lord to stay humble and teachable !!!

I went on a 18 mile bicyle ride after church today in the wonderful sunshine. I pedaled hard and got a great workout. It is discouraging how quickly I get out of shape if I miss exercising even for a couple days. I have to stay very faithful to a routine of exercise or else I go downhill rapidly.

The same is true of our heart and soul and spirit. If we neglect going to church, reading our Bible, spending time with God in prayer, confessing all known sin to God we will drift away from God very quickly. How foolish for a person to think that they won’t. If a person stops exercising faithfully most would not think that they won’t become out of shape just because they willed it so in their mind. If you don’t exercise faithfully you become weaker quickly, and if you don’t faithfully practice the basic disciplines of the Christian life you will drift away from God. Fear it.

I guess I shouldn’t have gotten so excited about the Blazers winning the other night because they lost tonight. But I guess every NBA team loses some. That is the way life is, good days and bad days, successful days and failure days, happy days and sad days, winner days and loser days. Nobody wins them all, but it is sure nice if you have a winning season. I think part of the key to winning more than you lose in life is how you respond to the loser days. With many a bad day results in a major downer, resulting in a belief that I am a loser incapable of ever winning. That is a dysfunctional way of living, and spirals downward as we continue in that way of responding to bad days. The worst thing about being a dysfunctional person is that you inevitably infect others around you with the same disease, it is very contagious. I work hard to respond to bad choices, poor performance, and major mess up days with self-talk that focuses on improvement and the accomplishment of a champion. “I can do better than that and next time I will, please help me Lord!”

One of the things I bought at the Sportman’s show was a really good flashlight. Not real big, easy to carry while hunting, but very bright. I like bright when you are out in the woods at night. In the gospel of John Jesus declares that He is the light of the world, and that we can choose to walk in His light. When we do walk in the light we can see where we are going, and we don’t trip over things and fall down. Jesus said that those who walk in the light will know the truth and the truth will make them free. Every morning I declare that Jesus is my savior and Lord, that I will follow Him and serve Him, no matter how difficult or hard that might be. That personal presenting of myself to Jesus as His servant doesn’t absolutely guarantee that I will succeed in following Him that day, but it is a great start to that desire. As I walk in the light “I will know the truth”. I will know that God is real, that Jesus is God’s Son and that He died for me. I will know in the core of my being the truth that so many debate.

I watched the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Dalls Maverics tonight. It was a good game and fun to watch. I watched while I ran on my treadmill so I got to do two things at once and the Blazer game made the jogging go faster. The Blazers started as a team shortly after Patty and I got married. I used to drive into Portland with friends from Trout Lake to watch Blazer games when ticket prices were $4 for seats less than 10 rows from the court. I remember how excited I was when the Blazers drafted Sydney Wicks from the John Wooden coached UCLA Bruins that had won another National Championship. The a Blazers won the NBA championship the year after I started pastoring at JBC, now that was a very good year. I enjoy sports and I am a faithful fan of my teams both College and professional. I am a time management nut, and I often wonder about my use of time when watching games on television. My conclusion which may be a major justification of poor use of time, is that I enjoy watching my teams play very much and that enjoyment is a significant source of renewing of emotional energy for me that my job as a pastor tends to drain out of me. Winning is more renewing than losing so I am feeling all filled up after the game tonight, and ready to go tomorrow and for the entire weekend.

I always feel good when I can get my sermon all written out by Wednesday. I finished it today by 2 pm and I felt really good about the finished product. I pray a lot while writing, and I read and think a lot as I study the portion of scripture that I will be teaching about. What I desire more than anything is that the words that I speak this weekend to those who attend will be the very words of God as He speaks through me as He honors my prayers and diligent study of His Word. This week we are in John 8 and in verse 32 Jesus says, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. We live in a day and age where many think truth is what the majority think. My personal firm conviction is that God is very real and powerful, and is the one who determines what is true by His nature. He doesn’t decide what is truth, the very nature of God and His attributes dictates what is truth. God has communicated that truth to us in His Word, the Bible and I am committed to reading it a lot, studying it diligently, and memorizing it so I can teach it accurately each week at JBC. Honor God by going to church this weekend and learning and growing spiritually by the preaching of His Word.