Proverbs 18:20-21  With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied; He will be satisfied with the product of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Death and life are in the power  of the tongue. My desire is to give life with the words that I speak to people, spiritual life, eternal life. I have established 5 axioms to grow the power of my mouth to speak words that give life.

#1- out of the same spring fresh water and salt water do not come. I want to eliminate totally from my life the “salty” words, words that are negative, critical, complaining, angry, unkind,hurtful and boastful. The presence of those kinds of words in my conversations and relationships will infect the words that I speak while teaching the Bible, while teaching my grandkids, and while talking to Patty.

#2- what I think about most of the time is how I will speak. I will take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, I will listen to my thoughts and when I first start thinking wrong thoughts I will choose to think about something good.

#3- Faithfully reading the Bible and memorizing it will powerfully program my mind and my heart to think and speak good.

#4- Watching television is a fast way to infect my mind and heart with wrong and foolish words.

#5- Hearing myself while I speak is a skill that I must learn. Many speak incredibly mean words and seem oblivious to what they are saying and the hurt that they are causing.

I want to become very sentiment to the words I speak, and hear myself well.

Proverbs 17:22  A joyful heart is good medicine,  But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

One  of the things I have learned to do, but only after I believed that I actually could learn how to do it, is choose to be happy and  joyful. Most adults think that they can’t control their level of joy , it is all a result of events and circumstances.  My emotions initially respond to the circumstances going on around me, and then when I recognize what emotional state I am in I can choose to change it. As I work on the self-control in me to not let my emotions be in charge of how I act, think, and talk I get better and better at doing it. Initially I choose to act happy when I feel sad, or angry, or disappointed, or bitter. As I act happy on the outside, that is I smile, be gracious to people, speak positive, edifying words, and think grateful, and happy thoughts, it only takes a few minutes before I am feeling the way I am acting. Everything is so much better when you are feeling happy, and it is so freeing to know that I am not a victim, I can choose joy.

All the rain of late reminds me of a favorite Bible passage of mine in  Hebrews 6:7-8,

“for ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”

In this passage there is the word “useful” and the word “worthless”.  The useful man receives a blessing from God and the worthless man is cursed by God. The useful man produces results from the rain that falls on him, vegetables  that help other people, and the worthless man produces thorns and thistles as a result of the rain, and is nothing but an irritant to others.

The same rain falls on both, but one produces good and the other produces bad, one is useful to God and others, and the other person is worthless to God and others. Every morning in my “Prayer of Commitment” I make a commitment to God saying, “Today, Lord I will not complain or grumble, not even a little bit, about anything, especially about anything that is obviously directly caused by You, like the rain.”

When I first started praying that prayer of commitment in the morning that contained numerous promises to God, I didn’t make much progress in some of the things I was committing to, but after continually saying the prayer every morning, after a while, a long while it seemed,  I started to change. Once change starts it gets easier and faster.

We like ourselves so much more when we are not a sour, grumpy, complaining person, and everybody around us likes us much more as well.

I am preaching in the Saturday night, and Sunday morning at 9 and 11:30 am services. Pastor Mike Dedera is the main preacher now, but he will just be getting home from Africa so I get to preach. Why do I preach? Many people think that in this age of computers and high tech electronics that preaching is terribly outdated and ineffective  as a tool to communicate truth. It is important for me to remember that God chose  preaching, and said that the world would call it foolishness.

So what is my reason for preaching, what is my goal, what am I hoping will happen. Some would think that it is teaching people how to act and behave in a loving way. My reason is to move people intellectually, emotionally, and cognitively closer and closer to God so that they would have a truly intimate relationship with Him, and they would become like Him in character.

If you look carefully at those words and think about them you will realize what an amazing statement that is “move people closer to God so they can know Him and become like Him.” Some are able to make that happen, but most are not. I think the key is that I pray for every person in our church each week and amoung other things I ask God if He would  please work supernaturally in their life and open their heart.

It is quite amazing to think about that I could teach the Word of God, and that God would work in people’s hearts.

I was gone hunting for 5 days and a couple hours before I got home Patty left for California to visit her two sisters and their families for a week. We are apart fairly often as I travel to speak and do crazy things like ride a bicycle to the Atlantic Ocean. One of the strengths of our marriage is we love each other very much and truly enjoy each other and being together, but we don’t possess each other and restrict each other’s ministries and pursuits because of our own need for our spouse. It obviously is easier to do that now with no young children at home that we are responsible for. At this stage in my life I have this driving desire to bear more fruit now than ever before and have shifted my ministry life into overdrive. Patty does a lot at the church with children’s ministries but is strongly drawn to her family, especially her grand kids and does as much with them and serves them as much as possible. I know husbands and wives who are jealous of the ministries, people, causes, and activities of their spouse. That is to bad because it seems that the fulfillment and rewards of our respective lives which we both experience makes our time together so much more special. Well, gotta go. Patty is home, and special times are about to happen😀

Starting in 1990 when I went to a prayer conference in Argentina I have been in about 40 different countries of the world, including Vietnam, China, Russia, Bosnia, and Lebanon. I have been to Sierra Leone, West Africa 23 times since 2002 where our church has been part of about 22 church plants, 20 plus schools, a Bible college, well drilling and a number of other projects. Sierra Leone had a 20 year civil war that was aweful in regards to the cruelty and mutilation that took place, and then recently they had the Ebola plaque which resulted in thousands dying. The standard of living is close to the lowest in the world, the government and police force are corrupt constantly trying to get bribe money from us while we are in country. The mortality rate of children under two is very high, everybody gets malaria on a regular basis, the average daily income is about $2 per day with about 80 % unemployment, there is very little in the way of medicine, education, or electrify. Most people live in a house made with mud with a roof of leaves that obviously leaks in the rainy  season . Patty and I had a goal of taking all of our 8 kids to Sierra Leone or another very poor country for a short term mission trip so that they would realize how incredibly blessed we are in this country, and that it would be so terribly selfish and ungrateful to complain about anything here. We accomplished that goal and it did and continues to influence the gratefulness factor in the life of our kids. Grumbling, complaining, fussing, ungratefullness, is so repulsive to God.

The character trait of diligence is super important to develope in our own life if we want to bear much fruit for the Lord. We need to be systematic about growing this trait in our life as a young track star is about improving his speed in his event who is dreaming of qualifying for the Olympics,  or a college basketball player who is aspiring to a career in the NBA would practice his skills. One of the strongest characteristics of our “flesh” that we were all born with is laziness, proneness to apathy, desire for comfort, and procrastination. There is a life long pull to to take it easy and coast.

I have a prayer time each morning first thing that takes about one minute, and included in this morning prayer of commitment is this “Whatever it takes, Lord, increase my resolve to do your will with all diligence.”

Becoming diligent is hard work, but diligence is not synonymous with working hard. I know from personal experience one can get up early and go to bed late, and expend a lot of energy, and be very busy, and not watch TV or get lost in social media binges—can appear to work hard—and still not get much done that really matters.

A great definition of diligence that I read in another blog that I have adopted as mine is “Diligence combines a willingness to work hard with a discerning focus, a sense of urgency, a vigilant carefulness and faithful perseverance.”

Two Bible passages that I meditate on in my pursuit of becoming a more diligent man are Ephesians 5:15-17 “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” , and John 15:8, “God the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit, and so prove that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ”.

My Dad was in the Navy for 22 years, he went through World War II and was involved in some major sea battles such as the “Battle of Midway” and saw and experienced a lot of “action” as he called it. He had lots of stories about his experiences that I used to enjoy hearing him tell as a boy. My Dad had a very strong character trait of being responsible.  He served his country well because that was his responsibility, he worked hard and served his wife and children and took good care of them over the years because that was his responsibility, and whatever he was involved with he did his part and was faithful. I once wrote in my journal a couple of weeks after he died of liver cancer as I was writing as much as I could remember about him and his life before I forgot it, “My dad was duty driven”, he was a patriot”, and “he did the right thing because it was the right thing”.

During the Vietnam War when I was in High School and College there were lots of demonstrations by people who were against the war. A resident in the valley we farmed in hung the American flag upside down. I remember how angry my Dad got as he watched the news and saw the flag flying upside down. He didn’t say much about it all, but I could tell it really bothered him. I asked him once why the demonstrations bothered him so much and he said, “No country or government is perfect, and ours certainly isn’t, but you don’t fix things by dishonoring, you fix things by serving”.

I want to be like my Dad.

I was sitting in my office today thinking about myself, ministry, family, the future, and life in general, and I came to the conclusion that there has never been a time in my life when I have felt more joy and peace than I do right now.  As I thought about it I came to the conclusion that the joy that I have now is “an all the time joy” in my heart that isn’t up and down, and also the peace that I have is a deep, anxiety free, sense of security that permeates my soul and doesn’t go away.

Most people, I think from observation are victims of life, that is they have joy when circumstances and events around them are good, and loss of joy even to the point of despair when life is bad. Their peace comes and goes on the apparent stability and predictability of their future.

Right now, post-election, it seems there is a lot of despair and anxiety in people. Most people, when they are unhappy and anxious become “blamers”, that is, as they attempt to figure out why they are so miserable and they blame others for what they are feeling.

So why am I feeling so wonderful in spite of lie? Philippians 4:4-7 is a passage of scripture I meditate on and work hard at practicing faithfully in my life. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

So I work hard at never grumbling or complaining about anything, but instead rejoicing always, thanking God for everything, and if I begin to feel anxious I pray to God about the situation and He gives His joy and peace. I pray all day long in my head while I do life, and I also have a date with God every day where I give Him undistracted time alone talking to Him about what is bothering me.

God is real, He is all powerful, He does indeed love me and desires time from me, and He is big enough to put His joy and peace inside me as a blessing when I give Him my life, my time, my trust, and my love. Try it.

As Patty and I raised 8 children probably the most often stated command to them as they grew up was “talk nice”. It was easy to anticipate when they would speak mean words instead of nice words, right after they didn’t get what they wanted, and the mean words would be directed to a sibling who did get the coveted last piece of chicken or the choice of a television program. Our goal as parents was to raise and train champions who had godly character. As we pursued that goal we knew that the best way to measure the success of our parenting goal was to listen to our kids talk. Jesus said that the words that come out of our mouth clearly reveal what is in our heart. Patty and I knew that children talk like children, they are children after all, but as they grew older we wanted them to grow inwardly strong, mature, confident, caring, self controlled, full of joy and peace, and it was easy to know how are parenting was going, the mouth is the window of the heart. We knew that as we trained them how to talk to others, the effort to do that was the discipline that was molding and shaping their character. If I get on a scale you know how much I weigh, and you can know my character and my maturity simply by listening to me talk. “Talk nice”, that is a good life motto.