Years ago I heard a sermon by the title of,”God Created Man to find a Cave with a Bear in it, Kill the Bear, and Live in the Cave”. The sermon was based on 1 Samuel 17:34-36,

But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.”

I have killed a Bear and a mountain lion, but with both of them I used a rifle, a big rifle, a 300 Weatherby Magnum, David killed his with his bare hands. How did he do that? First, he had zero fear, second, he obviously was a tough guy and very strong, and third, he had a very high level of faith that God would help him and He did.

Here is one of David’s personal statements of faith written in Psalms 18:32-34 “The God who girds me with strength and makes my way blameless? He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me upon my high places. He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”

Our faith in God grows stronger as we experience success as a result of His provision and power working in our lives. The problem is that most don’t attempt anything big enough, hard enough, and scary enough to experience that success from God. The result is that our faith is pretty much just intellectual ascent to God’s power and provision which doesn’t motivate us to attempt anything hard in our life.

We were created by God to conquer, to overcome, to accomplish big things with our life. Stories about David and other hero’s in the Bible were written for us, to inspire us to pick up our sling and kill the giants in our life.

Look for opportunities to attempt something we would naturally turn down because it seems to hard. Write a few really big crazy goals and sincerely work at accomplishing them. Ask God every day for the opportunity and ask Him for the strength, the faith, the provision, and the wisdom to accomplish the task. After you have conquered give God all the glory, don’t get proud of your accomplishments.

I think the most severe pain that I have ever felt in my life was when I fell into a camp fire landing on one hand and burning it severely. I was part of a group who took a bunch of High School kids camping. After we got camp all set up it started raining so we were attempting to hang a big tarp over the eating area. I was standing on a round of firewood tying one corner of the tarp to a tree and as I stretched to reach the rope the big hunk of wood tipped over and down I went into the fire. Someone drove me into the emergency room of the hospital in Astoria near where we were camping, and as I sat in the emergency room I remember the pain being overwhelming. I then remembered my Dad saying, “managing pain is disciplining yourself to think right while experiencing it”. So as I sat there in that emergency room waiting to be seen by a doctor I began to think about and try to imagine the pain Jesus felt on the cross. I remembered a sermon by Chuck Swindoll where he said that crucifixion was the most painful of all human experiences. I thought, I wonder why the death that He died for me, that redeemed me from an eternity in hell had to be so painful? I guess it was part of the price that the sins of people required in order to completely erase them.

As I continued to think, ponder, and wonder about Jesus and my redemption I noticed that my pain had become considerably less torturous as I mentally focused on something else. I thought to myself, “My brain can be my best friend or my worst enemy”, it is up to me to decide which it is by choosing what I think about. The pain I feel in my body now as a 70 year old man in my neck, back, hands, knees, hips, ankles, and head gets worse with each year of life as it does with most people over 60 years of age, and it is pretty much 24/7. Occasionally I let my thinking wander off to self-pity, but then I jerk it back to meditating on Bible verses and thanking God for my new body I am going to get soon that will be totally pain free. Life is full of pain, mental, emotional, and physical pain, it was designed by God to be that way, but heaven is totally pain free, I can’t wait!

today we had a big family project of picking our apples and grinding and squeezing them into apple cider. We had 5 of our kids, their spouses and 14 grandkids here, it was a blast. We finished the day with 30 gallons and probably another 5 that was drunk during the day. Over the years that we were raising our 8 kids we usually kept them home from school most Mondays and had a family work day. We did all kinds of projects like making apple cider, cleaning up the place and going to the dump, cutting and stacking firewood, painting, cleaning the house, weeding in the garden, and on the list goes. Our goal was to teach the kids to enjoy working, to work hard, to work together with others in unity, and just to be together as a family doing something productive together. Those family work days are some of my best memories of our kids when they were home, and today was a blessed time of reliving the good old days.

In the Bible the character trait of diligence is mentioned a lot, in fact probably the only character trait mentioned more would be love, it appears to be very important to God.

If you had a garden full of tomatoes and said to me, “my tomato’s did terrible this year, I didn’t get a single tomato!” So I volunteer to look at your tomato’s and see if I can offer any advice. When I look at the dozen plants they are all brown, shriveled, and dead, and I say, “You have to water them if you want them to grow and have tomatoes!” Your response is, “I did, I watered them when I planted them and again 2 weeks later”! My response is” that is not nearly enough” thinking to myself, “is this person really that naive?

A major part of living the Christian life is nurturing your own soul by being faithful to the basic disciplines of the Christian life such as prayer, Bible reading, and gathering with other believers. Many Followers of Jesus aren’t doing very well at growing and maturing in their character, and I find out as I visit that they do pray, read their Bibles and get together with other Christ followers, but not nearly enough.

So how do you know if you are watering your tomato plant enough? It is green, growing, and bearing fruit, that is what tomato plants do if they are healthy. How do you know if you are praying enough, reading your Bible enough and the other disciplines. That is easy, you are green (there is life, passion, and energy in you), you are growing, and you are bearing fruit.

I talk to parents who have problem kids and they will say, among other things, “I prayed for them”. I think to myself, I wonder how much, there needs to be a lot.

The difference between successfully living the Christian life or not, between raising healthy kids or not, having a great marriage or a bad one, is usually just “not enough” of what it takes to succeed in these areas of our life. We are dumb or naive about this basic principle, “you have to water the tomato’s plants or they won’t have tomato’s“. It is as simple as that. We, as people, are into token amounts so that we can say that we did it, but token amounts won’t do much.

I am memorizing the book of Philippians in preparation for teaching through the book on Wednesday nights at JBC. In chapter one Paul is talking about the positives of dying and being with Jesus or of staying alive and being able to serve the Lord here on earth some more. He used the term “fruitful labor” as the blessing of continuing to live on earth instead of in heaven. The longer I live the more I can accomplish for You Lord. Paul appears to be very passionate about the desire to accomplish more with his life, I wonder why? What was the underlying motive that drove him. I have that desire to do more, much more, and I often wonder why. It often bugs me that I can’t figure out my own motives. I periodically wish that I didn’t have this inner drive to do more and more, that I could just relax and do nothing. Get up any time I felt like it, spend most of my time with my grandkids, take lots of naps, have an easy, relaxing hobby like putting puzzles together instead of hunting, fishing, building things, bicycling across the nation, rafting down the Colorado River, and running marathons. I want to teach another seminar, write another book, grow our church bigger, teach another “Leadership Class”, start some more daughter churches, why?? Is it just pride? As I think about it I have come to the conclusion that is a result of my every morning prayer of commitment. One of the lines in my morning prayer of commitment is “today I will live my life as if it is the last one I have before I stand before You, Jesus and give an account of my life and am rewarded for the work I have done for You.” I have prayed that prayer every morning without fail for over 20 years. So, I will declare along with the Apostle Paul, “to live longer means more time to accomplish more with my life for the Lord”. I think I will still play with my grandkids, and take naps, but I will skip the puzzles!

In the Bible Churches are called “The Body of Christ”. That means that a local church like my church, Jefferson Baptist or JBC, is supposed to function like one body or person. That one body or person is supposed to function like Jesus Christ, meaning that we do what Jesus did, or would do if He were physically on the earth now. In order for a church to serve a community and meet needs 2 things must be true of that church. First it must have good unity between all those who attend that church, because great ministries are always the result of many people working together with such unity that they are like one person. Second, a high percentage of those who are part of a church need to function as if they are part of a body. In my physical body if very many body parts don’t work I don’t accomplish much, and I will eventually die. The same is true of a church. If there are to many people attending simply to have their own needs met or to be blessed by the services not much will happen. This summer, like most summers we had a major building project on our facilities. We do these projects in cash from a “Special Offering”, and the work is done mostly by volunteers. This year we replaced all the windows in our gymnasium and in what we call the “Old Sanctuary“, replaced the 40 year old siding with “Hardi-plank” siding, and this weekend we are going to paint it. There have been many different people who have given time this summer on this project and some who have given many hours of hard work. Our facilities are our house, our home as a church family. It is where we gather together to worship the Lord, to teach and learn, to eat and fellowship, to counsel people, to minister to kids, and on the list goes. Our facilities are very functional, they are all paid for, they look nice, and they are a picture of the dedication and involvement of many in our church family.

A command given by God to us over and over again is “do not fear”.

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

And the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

So, I have a goal never to fret, worry, be anxious, or to fear anything. I am confident that I can grow to the point of that being true in me, or at least very close, not because I think I am courageous but because God commands it, and what He commands He will give the strength and will to do.

The key is to recognize early on when I am starting to get uptight about anything, and then choosing to set my mind on Joshua 1:9 and other commands and promises from God on peace and confidence. My favorite verse is

Psalms 31:20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.

A life free from worry, anxiety, or fear sounds incredibly attractive to me. I think some don’t even try to pursue that life because they don’t think it is possible given their history and present disposition to being anxious over most every little problem, threat, or perceived threat in their life. I am choosing to pursue a life of complete and total trust and reliance on God, and complete and total freedom from worry, anxiety, and fear of any kind.

Oh, I changed my mind these are my favorite verses,

John 14:1-3 Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.