Everybody dies sooner or later, and we all know that. Many people are afraid of death, and most are very nervous about it. Even many who say they aren’t anxious or afraid are deceiving themselves. The main issue about death and dying are all the unknowns. Most deal with their impending death and that of their loved ones by simply ignoring it. The medical business makes a lot of money by keeping people alive just a little bit longer. It isn’t braveness or toughness that makes death a non-issue or even a positive issue; it is our faith.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

Philippians 1:23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;

So, we all want to grow strong in our faith so that the other side of death is more attractive to us than this side. Also, so that we can deal with sickness and problems with confidence, peace, and joy because we trust God totally.

2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, because your faith is greatly enlarged.

Romans 4:20-21 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

How do we grow our faith? How do we become strong in our faith like many of the Biblical heroes in the Bible? Many of us know how to grow tomatoes or zucchini, but how do we pro-actively grow our faith to be stronger every day we live.

Many steps, activities, and disciplines will help us grow in our faith, but let me suggest one that very few people know about. Faith is being confident in what we can’t see, walking by faith, not by sight, but our faith grows by things we can see, hear, and experience. God provides us with life visuals in creation that will build our faith, but most people miss them. The Apostle John in the Epistle of First John says, “what we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard, what we have looked at and touched with our hands.” In Romans 1:20, the Apostle Paul says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.

A great visual faith builder provided by God are flowers. I just bought a package of ten different kinds of flower seeds that, when planted, will result in beautiful flowers. In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul says that we are now like a seed, but when we die, that seed changes into something else. How many times more beautiful is a flower compared to a seed. For “Mother’s Day,” some of our kids bought Patty an orchid plant; it is gorgeous.

Faith is built little by little with many repetitions of what builds our faith. I have programmed myself so that whenever I see a flower in real life or a picture, I tell myself, “That is me with my new, glorified body; I can’t wait! Now, I am just an old shriveled up, ugly seed.”

On this year’s bicycle trip, we will stay overnight at three homes of people who know us, three different churches, three motels, and 30 campgrounds. Next year, I will call more churches and ask about staying at their facility. Most have a foyer we can sleep in, and they often have a shower and kitchen. The best thing is that they are free, and they like helping out a pastor going through a mid-life crisis at 75 and riding a bicycle around the country. This year, I will call “warm showers” host homes that are three days out from our present location. “Warm Showers” is an organization that has organized people who are bicycle enthusiasts into a club. When you join, you agree to host at least two bicycle groups a year, letting them camp in your yard and take a shower. When you join, you gain access to a map of all “Warm Shower” host homes in the USA and their phone number and email address. There are presently about 100,000 members. So, every evening on this trip, I will send out text messages and emails to people to check and see if they would be open to three old people camping in their yard. I have always enjoyed the experiences we have had in the past, staying at people’s homes or yards. They are all very friendly and bicycle-positive; again, they are free. When I send a request, they will go to the “Warm Shower” website and check me out. There will be a description of me and reviews by every person whose home we have stayed at. So they will know that I am a Pastor, have eight kids and 28 grandkids, love to hunt and fish, am 75 years old, and didn’t get vaccinated.
I look forward to these opportunities to meet new people and talk to them about their faith or lack of faith. Our trip this year is not one of the recognized bicycle routes, so there will be fewer “Warm Shower” host homes. However, because there is less bicycle traffic, the ones there are will be more open to having guests.
Some of you have asked about our route, so I have included it.

I am leaving with my brother, Cliff, and his wife, Kathy, on a 2,500-mile bicycle trip on Monday. It will take 40 days to complete, averaging 70 miles daily and taking Sundays off as a rest day. We have mapped out the entire trip and reserved all the campsites. Today, I started packing for the trip. We won’t have a support vehicle, so we must pack everything we need for the trip on our bicycles. I will have two panniers on the back and two on the front. A pannier is like a saddlebag, but they are made of bright yellow canvas instead of leather. I will pack twenty pounds in each rear pannier and fifteen in the front for 70 pounds on the bike besides my slim 220 pounds of pure muscle. I have divided up the food into three groups. The first will be on the bike at the start, and I will mail the other two ahead to pick up on the way. I will have my tent, sleeping bag, pad, lightweight camp chair, non-biking clothes, biking clothes, food, cooking and eating stuff, bike stuff, an extra tire, two extra tubes, a few tools, oil, toothpaste, etc. The batteries and stuff we will need to charge them are major-weight items. The e-bikes we ride are nice for going up hills, but the extra weight we will carry when there is no support vehicle is a major trade-off. Each of us will have two 20-pound batteries and chargers, one 100-foot extension cord, and a power strip.

Deciding what to take and what to do without is a significant challenge. I have a fancy hand-held digital scale to weigh each pannier, and when they get to their weight, that is it, not on once more. So some questions are: do I include mosquito repellent? How about sunblock? Shampoo? One pair of underwear? How much laundry detergent? I can probably buy that at the campsites.

The whole process reminds me of Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

In real life, a bunch of stuff dramatically hinders us from running the race Jesus gave us. We need to determine what is essential and what isn’t and eliminate the extra weight. It is too bad that we don’t have some kind of measuring device that we can use to determine when we need to cut back on excess baggage. There isn’t, so we will just have to use wisdom.

My Mom is the main reason for my present relationship with the Lord. Not only because of what she taught me in our home all day long, every day of my growing up years but because she took us kids to church every Sunday morning and Sunday night, Sunday School, youth group, summer camp, vacation Bible School, everything without exception and without fail. She was also a daily model of how to live a Christian life. Mom also constantly pushed us in school and whatever else we were involved in. Her motto was “be the best you could be, and then a little bit more.” She volunteered me to make a speech in 4-H, she constantly volunteered me to play my clarinet in church, she pushed me to run for Student Body President in my Junior year in High School, she was at all my wrestling matches, track meets, and basketball games yelling and cheering. One of my greatest strengths in school and 50 years of ministry was my love of reading and reading speed and comprehension. In the early years of my life in grade school, when we were constantly moving, following my Dad when he was in the Navy, I would read for hours every day. Mom would take me to the library, and we would check out a box full of books, and I would devour them. George MacDonald, a Scottish writer during the mid-1800s, wrote over 50 Christian novels, and I read them all before I started High School. From him, I moved on to reading CS Lewis novels and Tolkien stories. Then I began reading Zane Grey novels, over 50 of which I read before switching to that great American Theologian Louis L’Amour.

I didn’t choose my mother; God did, and He is the one who worked in her life to make her who she was. I often thank the Lord for His sovereign work and choices in the history of my life, which made me who I am today. I don’t ever want to take His gifts to me for granted or to think for a minute that I am responsible for who I am and what I have done in my life. Thank You, Lord, for my Mom.

Pictures of my Mom when I was ten, a couple of days before she died, and at her burial.

I have been looking at pictures online of the sun flares, of the sun and the Earth compared to each other, and of all the pictures people have taken and posted online of the northern lights seen last night. I also have been reading information about solar storms, what they are, and how they affect life here on Earth. As I was reading that, these verses came to mind.

Psalms 8:3-4
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?

Psalms 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Romans 1:19-20
because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

I was reading a young kid’s explanation for the cause of solar storms. “God poked His finger into the sun.” It sounds very logical to me, but then I strongly believe in God as the creator and sustainer of all that exists, so it is easy for me to believe that.

The most amazing thing about this recent display of God’s power is that He loves me and desires my fellowship with Him for eternity.

One of my favorite memory verses now is 2 Corinthians 12:9
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

In the last year, I have struggled so much with being tired and unmotivated. I have just considered it my age and that I was stuck with it, no matter how much I hated being a wimp. But I have recently increased significantly, praying for strength and motivation, and I have been feeling more energetic and motivated. I pray off and on all day long for God to make me strong like Samson and as motivated as Caleb. I have been increasing my Bible reading, prayer time, and scripture memory as a form of waiting on the Lord and claiming His promise for strength.

Isaiah 40:31
Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

A thought that pops into my head often is, “Just relax and take it easy; you have done your part; now, act like an old man.”

Maybe I should; even the Old Testament saints got old, tired, and inactive. But I have a long list of ministry goals I will try to kick into existence this Fall. We will see how it goes.

On our flight to Oahu and back again, I had a new experience: I didn’t have to take my shoes off going through security. I don’t know if it is a new rule that you can leave them on if you are 75 or older or if I hadn’t heard of it before, but it was nice. I was thinking about why they made that rule. Maybe they don’t believe a 75-year-old would be a terrorist, or actually, could be. Perhaps it is because old people take so long getting their shoes back on that they create a backup in the security line. Or it could be that the scene they make when they fall over while trying to get them back on is about as bad as if they got caught with a gun. Or, as in my case, putting socks on is so time-consuming that we just leave them on for days, and the smell that radiates through the security area when old people take their shoes off causes rebellion in all security workers.

It is funny to me how a little thing like not taking my shoes for security purposes will create this curiosity thinking in my head for hours. So I did what any intelligent person would do: I googled it, and this is what I found is the reason why I didn’t have to take my shoes off. The mystery is solved.

“TSA Security has expedited security procedures for passengers 75 and older, and they are now not required to remove their shoes and light jackets at the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) checkpoint. They are also allowed to pass around the Advanced Imaging Technology devices. Passengers 75 and older can receive some form of expedited screening through risk-based intelligence-driven security that allows TSA to better focus resources on passengers who more likely pose a risk.”

When I was six years old, I started school; when I was 16, I got a driver’s license; when I was 18, I graduated from High School; when I was 20, I got married; when I was 21, I could legally buy beer, and now that I am 75, I am no longer a security risk at airports. Those are significant milestones in life, for sure!

Here is a different list of milestones: When did I become a believer in Jesus, when was I baptized, when did I read the Bible all the way through in one year, when did I lead my first person to Jesus, when did I pray for one uninterrupted hour, when did I fast for 24 hours for the purpose of prayer, and when did I get 50 Bible verses memorized well?

And the best milestone of all, when did I get my glorified body?

It may be my imagination, but I seem to have many more things go wrong on hunting and fishing trips than most. Today, I booked a charter fishing trip for Wahoo, tuna, and swordfish for my grandson, Rocky, and me. We got out about three miles this morning, and the engine on the boat quit running. The captain thought he would have to get towed in, but he finally got it started. It would only idle, so we returned to the harbor very slowly. The nice thing is I got refunded all the money I gave the captain for the fishing trip.
Another good thing is we had a nice boat ride, and it was an exciting adventure for a little bit, but we didn’t catch any fish. So, we didn’t catch any fish on three different surf fishing trips, we didn’t kill any pigs the last two nights, and we didn’t catch any fish today on our charter! My oh my, my grandson will have a poor opinion of my hunting and fishing skills, but I think he will have a good opinion of how I managed the disappointment of our unrealized goals. Here are a few of my personal rules for being a happy hunter and fisherman, no matter what happens.

If what you wanted didn’t happen, look hard for as many positives as possible, enjoy the experience and the adventure; that is a choice, and never talk negatively or complain.

Today, we went to church in Oahu with our daughter Sally and her family. The pastor preached out of Colossians. While he was preaching, I was reading the first two chapters of the book of Colossians. It was an excellent sermon that stimulated my thinking. When we got home, I wrote down these notes.
– In Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Col. 1:14
– Jesus is the exact image of God the Father; any teaching that says Jesus is less than God is false. Col 1:15
– Jesus created everything that exists, visible and invisible. Col 1:16
– Jesus holds all things together; He is the atomic glue. Col. 1:17
– Jesus is the head of the church, His eternal companion. Col. 1:18
– God the Father reconciled all things to Himself through the blood of Jesus on the cross. Col. 1:20
– Jesus desires that He present each of us before the Father holy, blameless, and beyond reproach because of His death. Col. 1:22
– If we have faith in Jesus, He will now live in us. Col. 1:27
– In Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. 2:3
– Jesus is the fullness of Deity in bodily form. Col. 2:9
– Jesus is the head over all rule and authority, supernatural and earthly. Col 2:10
– Jesus died, was buried, rose from the dead, and is alive today, and we will live with Him forever if He is our Savior. Col. 2:12-14
– Jesus disarmed the devil and all his demons when He rose from the dead. Col. 2:15
– Therefore, we are free of all man-made religious rules that appear wise but are useless in making us like Jesus in character. Col. 2:20-23

Our life should now revolve around loving Jesus, serving Him, obeying Him, seeking Him, glorifying Him, becoming like Him, and worshipping Him. Col. 3:1-25

Tonight, my grandson, who is eleven, and I went pig hunting. We have put out some grain several nights in a row, which they have eaten, and we were set up about 20 yards from our bait station tonight with a 22 rifle on a tripod with a night vision scope. We only made it to 8:00 pm, and my hunting buddy wore out, and no pigs had shown up yet. We will give it a go for the next two nights before we leave. Many wild pigs are on the Island of Oahu, and they are a major nuisance. Part of the problem is that gun control laws are very strict here, and not many people hunt; they swim, surf, and fish, so the pigs have nothing to keep them under control. Pigs are like rabbits; they have a litter of ten baby pigs twice a year. I guess I am just going to have to visit our family here more often and help them out with their problem.

In the Old Testament, pigs are occasionally used as a word for demons. Jesus cast demons into a herd of pigs who, as a result, ran into the sea and drowned themselves. Because of the population density, the pigs here have gotten good at hiding out in small bushes and coming out only at night, rooting up lawns, and eating dog and cat food out on back porches. That reminds me of how demons work in our lives, sneaking around everywhere in our lives, creating chaos and confusion, and constantly tempting and lying to us. If I could see them, I would shoot them. But I can’t see them, so I have to defeat them through prayer, the big gun that God has given us to defeat the power of darkness. If you neglect prayer, you will have pigs in your backyard.