This Sunday is Jefferson Baptist Church’s annual baptism at Lake Charles. Over the years, I was blessed to be able to baptize all eight of our kids. It was a great honor to do that, and this Sunday, I have the honor of baptizing one of my grandsons, Courage. I have forgotten a lot of events with our kids, but I remember each of their baptisms very clearly; I fell in when I baptized one of them, I won’t say which one. When Sarah, our oldest, was baptized, she gave a ten-minute testimony that was amazingly good for a twelve-year-old. I remember thinking that she was for sure going to be a gifted teacher someday. The most memorable of all the people I have baptized were my Dad and Mom. It was just a couple of weeks before Dad died of liver cancer. He had lost so much weight that he didn’t weigh a hundred pounds. I remember thinking how strange it was that I had in my hands the man who taught me more than any other person, who had influenced me tremendously and was the main person who shaped me into the man I had become. As I think about it now, I don’t think any other event in my life is as significant as that baptism. I remember my baptism; I was a senior in High School. I remember Patty’s baptism about a year after our marriage. Jesus was baptized when He was thirty and immediately began His ministry. God intended for our baptism to be a significant event. It is a ceremonial picture of our dying to ourselves, no longer being the one running our life, and being resurrected to a new life where Jesus is now King. Do you remember your baptism? It is a good idea to reflect on our baptism, remind ourselves what it meant, and recommit to following Jesus as the Lord of our life.

There is a lot of talk in the news lately about senility. It makes me wonder about myself. I wonder if I start getting senile if I will be personally aware of what I am or if I will be oblivious to it. Many things have changed as I get older, and I am mindful of those growing limitations and try to compensate for them. Most of those have to do with what I cannot do anymore because of decreased energy and drive. I am trying to slow the average decline in physical ability through exercise and strenuous activities as best I can. I am also working at keeping my brain sharp by memorizing Bible verses. I keep track of how long I work on my verses and how much I get reviewed or memorized and compare it with what I have done in the past. So far, I have been improving a little bit at a time, but improving.

I consider that good news for me. The cool thing about the 30 minutes I spend every day memorizing Bible verses is that it is not only good exercise for my brain but also excellent exercise for my soul. I get physically tired now much easier and sooner than I did 20 years ago, but my mental ability to memorize a chapter in the Bible is way ahead of what I could have done 20 years ago. Whenever I see someone at church in the foyer and can’t remember their name, I get more motivated to work on my scripture memory. Patty and I drove to The Dalles, Oregon, yesterday, and I preached at a friend’s church today. While teaching the Bible in the service, I felt confident I was being clear, understandable, and motivational. Afterward, I asked Patty how I did; she was very complimentary. My doing well in preaching isn’t an ego thing; it is a “want to serve the Lord well for many more years thing.”

I had a very good friend in High School and College. He was a strong Christian who was planning on going into ministry. He was one of those guys who oozed confidence and personality, an obvious future success in whatever he did in life. I hadn’t heard from him or anything about him for over 30 years. And then, recently, I heard that he had been in the Oregon State Prison for the last ten years and had recently gotten out. I don’t know anything about the details of his life, but it doesn’t look like it is ending like it started. I wonder why? He is my age, so he doesn’t have much time to turn things around and do something with his life that matters. In conversations with people, I hear things like this often: people who have made a train wreck of their lives. I wonder why? How does that happen? I know it is because of bad choices, but why do they make those choices that end up in a mess? Knowing what is good and right often doesn’t matter; they still do it. It is a mystery to me, but every time I hear another story about someone messing up their lives and the lives of many other people around them, I am more determined than ever to pray for my grandkids that God will guide them and protect them from the evil one. As a Pastor, I pray a little for many people, but for my grandkids, I pray a lot. They are my responsibility; God has given me authority with Him on their behalf, and I will not neglect that gift of power with Him for them.

I am convinced, without a doubt, that the most important of all my disciplines is scripture memory. I say that not only because of all that it has done for me but because very few Christians have any systematic Bible memory plan in their life. The most important things are the things that the devil works hardest to keep out of our lives. Most don’t do the hard stuff that takes focus and self-discipline.

Let me challenge you to do a Bible study on meditating on scripture. Look up every reference on meditate/meditating and record all the benefits and blessings God promises that will come into your life. It is a fantastic list, and the most amazing thing is that those blessings don’t motivate many people to memorize the Word of God as a part of their Christian life. I believe that meditating on scripture and memorizing it is basically the same thing.

My goal is to spend 30 minutes every day working on memorizing new verses and reviewing old verses. A tool that I use that helps me a lot is the App “Bible Memory.” It is a fantastic tool that has increased the effectiveness of my time memorizing.

The app usually costs $9.99 for a lifetime; if that wasn’t enough of a bargain, they offered it for $5.00 for the next week. Go to https://biblememory.com/pro/freedom/ and spend $5.00 on the best thing you will ever buy for $5.00.

I wonder how those who get a gold medal hung around their neck at the Olympics feel. I bet it is surreal; you would feel like pinching yourself to ensure it is real. I have had some honors that were very special to me; in fact, they were so special that I still go back and look at pictures of the event and try to recapture some of the emotion. The level of joy felt when being honored is determined by my relationship to the person or people who are honoring me. The person who could make me feel most special was my Dad, and now it is my wife, kids, grandkids, and friends.

The honor and glory that I hope that I will get from Jesus at the end of my life is the most motivating honor there is in my life. I will stand before Him at the end of my life at the Judgment Seat of Christ and I hope that I will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master.”

The desire to hear His praise for me keeps me going when I don’t feel like it.

I don’t know who is going to be elected President. I don’t know if I am going to kill an elk this year. I don’t know how many salmon I will catch in Alaska this month. I don’t know what is going to happen in Israel. I don’t know when Jesus is coming. I don’t know when I will die. And a thousand other things that I don’t know no matter how hard I try to figure them out.

Often the unknown drives us crazy as we fret about what will happen in the future. Also we often get very agitated about events in the news because of the level of injustice in the world that we can’t do anything about except pray.

There are about a dozen verses among all those that I have memorized that I pull out of my memory and meditate on almost daily as I live this life, one of them is,

Psalms 37:7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.

It is amazing the power that verse has on my mind when I start fretting about things I have no control over, but wish that I could change. God’s Word is supernaturally powerful to give me strength, peace and joy in the midst of the worst circumstances.

Make a goal to memorize a verse or two every month and to meditate on them for just a couple of minutes every day. It will change your life, I guarantee it.

My family moved 23 times by the time I was 12 years old, because of Dad being in the Navy. Because of that I didn’t have any friends except my immediate family as a kid. After Dad retired from the Navy we lived five years at the first farm, and then moved to the Trout Lake Dairy. My graduating class at Trout Lake had seven students, it was a small school. All of that to say, I grew up with few friends and was a major introvert for most of my life. I preferred to fish by myself, work on cars by myself, and travel by myself. It is amazing that I went into ministry as a Pastor.

But as I have gotten older I don’t enjoy doing anything by myself anymore. I don’t go fishing unless with a friend or grandson, I can’t motivate myself to go out and work on the 1969 Mustang by myself, the thought of driving to Portland by myself makes me cringe.

The “Seniors” had a barbecue at the church Wednesday, and I went and stayed and visited with lots of people and had a wonderful time of fellowship, I felt a great deal of joy from being with others my age. There was a time, not that long ago when my appearance at church social events was “token,” that is I showed up for a few minutes, showed my face, shook a few hands because it was my duty as the Pastor. Now, I live for the next social event because friends give me energy and make me happy. It used to be that people drained me of energy unless it was a very small group of close friends.

The change in me from being an introvert to an extrovert was gradual and a result of choosing to spend more time with people when I was depressed rather than less, which was my history. I discovered that I was quickly lifted up in my joy level, especially if I looked for ways to encourage others I was with, instead of just focusing on my problems. The “Seniors” barbecue is an example, I know that many older people like myself are struggling with health issues, family problems, and energy shortages, so I listened, paid attention, and encouraged when it was appropriate. I left feeling good.

In reading all the verses that I can find on heaven, it looks like fellowship is what eternity is about. The emphasis isn’t about what we accomplish, it is about being with Jesus and each other. I think that is why the emphasis in the New Testament is loving one another, forgiving each other, serving one another, being kind to one another, greeting one another, and on the list goes. Heaven is a party.

As I have gotten older some things have gotten worse, but also some things have gotten better.

As I set my goals and make plans for the future I am downsizing a bit. Mostly on the physical goals. I tend to do that after repeated failures and evaluate thoughtfully the “why” of the failure. I had three successive failures at climbing Mt Adam’s before I declared that a thing of the past in my life. I failed to complete the last half marathon I did 10 years ago and the most recent several months ago I didn’t get past the training for it so my running days are also over. I no longer ride a motorcycle. I can walk but walking much on uneven ground is risky without a walking stick so I am planning hunting trips accordingly. I can’t pull my bow back any more so I am going to give it away. Sleeping on the ground in a tent is a major challenge any more so I am giving that stuff away as well, and I will probably turn down invitations to hunt in Alaska with my son-in-law as well, though, there isn’t much that enjoy as much as a moose hunting trip. A cot will work and of course Motels or Motorhome’s. Fishing has few limitations so no downsizing there, I will probably increase fishing time to make up for reductions in other areas.

My brain seems to still work fine, I enjoy reading, studying, and writing so teaching will continue with some extra rest between events for energy loss.

I do enjoy 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night now! Lazy old man🙄Though, I will make major sacrifices there for fishing time.

I am going to make time with my wife, kids, grandkids, and friends a major priority.

I still enjoy working on cars, building things, projects around the house, and I am thinking about taking up gardening, or raising pigs.

I am planning a bicycle trip next year to Fairbanks, Alaska. I have lots of time to work out details to make it an enjoyable and doable goal. Let me know if you want to go. It is the most beautiful trip in the world.

Today I hung around and observed the Vacation Bible School at Jefferson Baptist Church. There are almost 400 kids here and about the same number of volunteers, teachers, snack fixers, parking attendants, craft supervisors etc I was amazed at how organized everything was and how fluid the various ages, events, and programs worked together. It was truly harmony in motion. Every one was doing their thing and fitting in with everyone else and there were maybe 6 people getting paid for their efforts, the rest of the hundreds of workers were volunteers. It was a great picture of what the church is supposed to be. Everyone was happy, serving, influencing others for eternity.

I am not sure how all that I saw today came to be, but the Lord has certainly built his church well at JBC.

One of the things that I notice on my bicycle trips is that my general attitude and positiveness is impacted by my tiredness and blood sugar level. So as the miles pile up, the temperature gets hotter, the hills get steeper, my butt hurts more, and my legs get tired my desire to keep riding gets less. I also knew that to be true when I ran marathons and when I used to climb mount Adams annually. I used to tell people that would climb with me that their brain would start screaming at them, “stop – you are killing me!” And when we hit the 10,000 foot level your brain will go into hyper-drive trying to get you to quit. I would tell them to eat carbs and drink water as they climbed, but still their brain was going to try and override their will and desire to make it to the top. I would say, “If you want to make it to the top, you are going to have to ignore your brain screaming at you to stop and will yourself to keep going.” When I used to run marathons mile 20 was where my brain would scream at me the loudest, “You dummy, what are you doing! Stop! Stop! You are killing yourself, this is stupid!” If I could “gut it out” another 2 miles then I could finish the last 4, and finish the race.

The key for me to not quit races and and to make it to the top of Mt. Adams was to know that this would happen, to be mentally prepared for this intense inner battle that my brain was waging and then turn it into a contest that I was determined to win. It often seemed that my brain was like a second person in me that was set on getting me to take the easy way.

The same thing happens with discouragement, disappointment, setbacks, and failure. Our brains will start trying to get us to stop, slow down, and take an easier, more comfortable way. In the midst of living life and dealing with tough times, we need to think, meditate, and ponder on what we really want to do and accomplish, what we believe God wants us to do and accomplish. For me, writing and praying helps a lot in coming to clear conclusions about what I want, not what my flesh wants. I believe God puts His will for me in my heart and I sense it in the form of desires of my heart.

I don’t climb Mt Adam’s any more, the last time I made it to the top was when I was 69 years old, though I have tried three times since my last successful summit. I don’t run marathons any more, though I did sign up to run a half-marathon this last April but didn’t get past the training part. I know I have to quit some things and slow down, but I want it to be what I want, not what my flesh wants.

I do hard things physically to train myself to do the hard things spiritually, in ministry, and in life in general.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I discipline my body and make it my slave.” With many people it is the other way around, they are the slave of their body and its desires, and as a result they don’t accomplish much for the Lord with their life.

I am going to wait a for a little bit of time before I decide on my future long distance bicycle riding trips. I know there is a time to quit but I don’t want it to be yet. I will probably downsize and modify, but I will decide on that after I have recovered from this year’s disappointments, so I can think clearly.